


Unsuitable

by Wolfscub



Category: Loki Fandom, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Caretaking, Dom!Loki, Dominant Loki, Erotica, F/M, Fluff, Loki in love, Loving!Loki, Oral Sex, Protective!Loki, Romantic!Loki, Sex, Some angst, Spanking, smutty smut smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-19
Updated: 2015-02-22
Packaged: 2018-03-13 20:20:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 29,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3395087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolfscub/pseuds/Wolfscub
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Asgardian Royal Family has a visitor who captivates Loki.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> NSFW! Not all of it - later chapters (three or so on)
> 
> Mature Audiences Only - Same as above
> 
>  
> 
> This is a very loving, romantic, protective Dom!Loki. If that's not your bent, go read something else.
> 
> This one is longer than my usual - I don't often do chaptered fics, for the same reason I have my doubts about this one. I like the first five chapters, or so, and seriously considered ending it there (which would have been, essentially, unfinished), but then I decided that I wanted to end it properly, but the tenor of it changed in the last few chapters so I'm unhappy with them, which is why I tend to shy away from chapters.
> 
> Also, I did this kind of stream-of-consciousness and then went back and chaptered it out, so the breaks aren't necessarily as natural as they should be.
> 
> Ugh. Ah well. It is what it is.

She must've been deemed unsuitable, somehow.

Although he couldn't imagine why.

Fath- Odin had greeted her more warmly than he greeted most people, as if, under that gruff exterior, there was a true affection for her.

Moth - Frigga obviously loved her like a daughter, which was quite understandable since she _was_ the daughter of one of her best and longest friends, who had been gone for some time.

They were of an age, he and Thor and Princess Avique, but as of yet none of the usual "let's throw another princess at the two eligible princes and see if anything - anyone - sticks to one of them" had been done in regards to her arrival - no state reception, no grand ball . . . just Frigga greeting her at the royal family's private entrance and then the two of them introduced to her at an intimate family dinner.

A new strategy, perhaps? Loki wondered, then discarded the thought. After all, she was not truly a Princess any more - though he noticed that everyone seemed to treat her as such - her father's kingdom having been long since absorbed into Odin's, although there didn't seem to be any lingering animosity about that at all, if there ever was any to begin with.

She wasn't dressed to attract either of their eyes - none of the not so subtle revelation of her allegiance to one or the other of them blatantly revealed in her clothing - red for Thor, green for him, like most of the other poor creatures who had been paraded not so subtly under their noses so many times in the past.

Instead, her very proper, modest dress - which, while scrupulously clean still bore signs that it had seen much better days - was of varying shades of lavender that matched her eyes and hid more than it revealed - a situation that usually held no interest for Loki, but he found himself unable to pry his eyes away from her, regardless of the fact that she was almost annoyingly covered up.

Thor, who sat next to him and diagonally across from Avi, had turned on what passed for charm in him, but for some reason Loki was pleased to note that she didn't seem to be responding to him in anything other than the most polite of terms.

She seemed quiet and shy, but he had a suspicion that there was much more to her than what she was revealing at table.

"Odin and I were so sorry to hear about your husband, Avi." Frigga put her hand over the young woman's, gripping it for a second before letting it go.

"Thank you, Aunt Frigga. I received your note and the beautiful flowers," she replied softly, and with no small amount of anguish clearly ringing through her tone.

To which the ever thoughtful, bull in a china shop Thor said exactly what was on his mind. "Your husband died?"

There was a long pause, during which their guest stared at her soup, and when she raised her eyes to Thor's, Loki was horrified to realize that there were tears in them that were threatening to overspill. He'd never felt quite such an ache in his chest as he did when he saw the unmistakable evidence of just how much pain she was in.

"Yes," she answered quietly, blinking back the tears.

"You must not have had much time together," his brother commented, not really paying much attention to the effect his words were having on Avi; he was much more interested in his dinner.

She sat back, away from her plate, fiddling anxiously with the napkin in her lap, having barely touched her food. "We had known each other since we were children. He - he had always been sickly - always in pain - and it got worse as he got older." She paused for a short, awkward moment, and Loki would have sworn that he could hear her hard swallow. "But I would trade the rest of my life to have just one more moment in his arms."

Frigga wrapped her arm around the younger woman. "I'm - we - are all so sorry that Talm died. You know that he felt the same way about you, don't you?"

Avi nodded, giving Frigga a weak smile in acknowledgement of her attempts to make her feel better.

"And you were a most devoted wife - all of that lifting you had to do, bathing him and seeing to his medications and doing all of the work taking care of him plus the house and the farm - I heard that you wouldn't allow anyone else to do anything for him - even to the detriment of your health -"

"I was his w -wife," she choked out. "He was my heart. My everything. It was my honor to take care of him."

The table was uncomfortably silent, except for the badly muffled sounds of Avi trying to suppress her sobs, completely unable to do so. Finally, she abruptly disengaged herself from Frigga's embrace, excused herself hastily and practically ran from the table.

To Loki's surprise, the older woman made no move to go after her.

He found himself on the edge of his seat. "Mo - Frigga, will you not go to her?"

Kind eyes settled on Loki, and for a moment he could almost forget what she and his father had done to him. "Perhaps some grief is too deep to be healed, but Loki, my son, it has been three years since her husband's death. I had hoped that inviting her here might help her out of her doldrums, but I may have made a mistake in doing so. Regardless, I do not wish to intrude on such personal feelings."

Loki stood, throwing his napkin on his plate and leaving the table, obviously going to follow Avi, despite what his mother had said.

He found her not too far away, at one of the smaller balconies that overlooked the city.

"It is beautiful, is it not?" he asked, but it wasn't the city he was looking at as he did so.

Barely hearing him through her tears, Avi nodded her head automatically, desperately wishing she was back at her own small house, alone with her memories. She should never have accepted Aunt Frigga's invitation to come to Asgard as her guest, although her doctor had encouraged her to go away, to have a change of scenery. She had been withering away slowly since Talm's decline had begun in earnest and, Frigga was right, her health had suffered for it.

He'd never been much of an empath - Loki snorted inwardly. He'd never been _any_ kind of an empath. But the thought of her anguish was absolutely unbearable to him. He would have done anything in his not inconsiderable power to ease - or better yet, eradicate - it.

But he also didn't want to overstep his bounds and offend or frighten her. Women he had plenty of experience with in general. But grieving widows? What did he know of those? Thoughts of grand magical gestures designed to coax a smile from her filled his mind, and yet he forced himself to push past them, intuiting correctly that that might be a bit over the top.

Instead, he took several steps closer to her, surprised to find that he didn't quite trust himself to stand next to her and not reach out to touch her, but remaining very near.

She smelled like everything good he'd ever smelled in his life all wrapped up into one person, with a heavy dose of lilac thrown in, which must've been her preferred scent.

Avi saw him out of the corner of her eye - the prince who had followed her here - the darker, taller one who was not as muscle bound as his brother, but was just as powerful looking in his own right, she thought - place something on the balcony in front of her and she gasped when she saw what it was - a beautiful, delicate crystal vase bursting with lilacs.

She reached out and touched it tentatively, as if she wasn't sure it was really there.

"Thank you - lilacs are my favorite - but where did you get these? They're only in bloom for a short time on Midgard, and that time is not now. I can't think that they're cultivated on Asgard . . .?"

He was so tall - and so close! She felt a bit crowded and took an abrupt step back from him, slamming the small of her back against the railing as she did so.

Loki allowed her to retreat from him that tiny amount, holding himself still as he noticed the tracks of tears down her rounded cheeks, and the way her lips still trembled a bit, explained in a soothing tone, "All things are possible on Asgard, Princess."

She turned away from him to bury her face in the blooms and take a deep breath, and when she rose, she wasn't quite smiling, but there were no more tears and fewer traces of those she had already wept, saying as her eyes darted to his nervously, then back to the flowers which she cradled against her, "They're gorgeous - and so is the vase - thank you very much."

Loki made a short bow, murmuring, "No more so than the one that holds them."

She blushed prettily, refusing to meet his eyes.

"They are by way of apology for my brother's oafish attempts at conversation. I'm sorry he upset you."

Still holding the flowers, Avi leaned back against the balustrade. "Thank you, but I know it wasn't his intention, and I know that your mother - and everyone else around me - thinks that I should long since have gotten over - " she paused, and turned away from him, lowering her head and, from his position a bit behind and to the right of her, Loki knew she was weeping again. Then she raised her head and cleared her throat, impatiently brushing the tears from her cheeks and continuing, " - my love for him. And they're probably right."

He took a step towards her, almost but not quite touching her, clenching his fists at his sides to prevent himself from reaching out to do what he so desperately wanted to. "Although I can claim no expertise whatsoever in the subject, I do not believe that these things can be prescribed, Princess. The heart heals when it heals; in its own time. The important thing is that you take steps _towards_ that healing and not away from it."

Although he had meant his words to provide consolation, it seemed that they had done the exact opposite. Her head was down again, slim shoulders shaking as she crumpled into herself, and he could stand it no longer.

Carefully tempering the strength with which he wanted to pull her to him, he did just that by first carefully surrounding her from behind - placing a hand on the railing to either side of her - then, when he had her caged by his big body - moving them slowly to her shoulders, turning her around gently to first pluck the vase from her and magic it away, then tucking her into his arms.

He wished he could say that it was an entirely unselfish hug, but parts of him apparently didn't subscribe to the neutrality that would have required. At least his attire partially concealed the desires that flared wildly within him. He did his best to ignore it, and hoped that she would, too, because comforting her truly was the first and foremost thing on his mind - even if his body refused to cooperate with the rare bout of altruism she seemed to inspire in him.

Avi didn't fight him - didn't have the strength, although she knew she should have. Somehow, having another man's hands on her seemed very, very wrong, even though his around her felt marvelously warm and supportive.

Loki kept strict control of himself, limiting how he touched her to simply rubbing her back and rocking them a bit back and forth. She wasn't really objecting to his embrace, but neither was she relaxing into it as he had hoped she would.

The second she tried to pull away, he let her go and took a step - granted, a calculatedly small one - back, searching her face. "I hope you don't think me too forward, but I could not bear to see you crying like that. "

He was so tall! She practically had to crane her neck every time she tried to look up at him, although she did attempt to keep their eye contact to a minimum. His stare was mesmerizing and she was afraid that, if he pushed her at all, if he kissed her passionately, she wouldn't have the fortitude to stop him.

And that was a startlingly upsetting revelation unto itself - that she was thinking of anyone but Talm kissing her and that she was worried that she might actually respond to him!

Preoccupied with her own thoughts, she was surprised to find her chin tilted up so that she was given no choice but to meet those fathomless green eyes. He knew he'd probably regret it, but he couldn't stop himself from saying what was on his mind. "You must be exhausted from having spent so much time taking such good care of him."

Avi forced herself to stand taller - and thus away from his touch - and straighten her shoulders. There were no tears, there was no tiredness or even sadness in her voice when she replied, "I'm fine, Prince Loki. I am strong."

His smile was gentle, as was his tone. "Of that I have no doubt. But how long has it been since anyone took care of _you_ , little one? Since someone saw to _your_ needs ahead of their own?"

Longer than she would care to admit, she acknowledged to herself, but she wasn't sure she liked where this conversation was going. The look he was giving her was entirely too intense . . . and, for all of his pretty words, too nakedly desirous.

A small shudder ran through her as she remembered the feeling of that most male part of him poking at her front as he'd held her. 

He wanted her.

But she didn't want him.

She was married.

She loved Talm.

She couldn't . . . 

_Want_ him . . . -

He was too . . . too . . .

Just too - intense. 

Masculine. Powerful.

\- Could she?

A delicate shudder ran through her that she knew he had to have noticed, parts of her were coming to life that had been long since dormant.

And she wasn't at all sure that was a good thing.

Especially not in response to _him_.

Knowing, in what he had thought of as his hardened heart, that it was too soon, but unable to prevent himself from doing so, Loki took his courage, his now tender - at least towards her - heart and the demanding, throbbing rest of him, into his own hands and, throwing caution to the wind, whispered urgently, taking a step towards her that was probably the worst thing he could have done at the time while declaring firmly, "I would _be_ that someone, Princess -"

She bolted from him then, not cutely, not skittering shyly or teasingly, as if trying to entice him to chase her, but at a flat out run. 

And he let her go - when he could very easily have captured and held her there with him, against her will if he had wanted to.

But he refused to do that. 

He wanted her, but of her own accord.

He would have her surrender herself completely to him, by her own word, by her own deed.

Nothing less would satisfy him than to accept her submission to him, only to very happily spend the rest of their days together completely devoted to either indulging her - and himself in her - or disciplining her, dependant, of course, on what her behavior warranted.

He had a feeling that even then - even when he had unlimited, unfettered access to her - his craving for her would still not be sated.

Perhaps it never would be.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Being the idiot that I am, I accidentally posted this chapter to Stolen Heart at first.
> 
> That has since been rectified.
> 
> Sigh.
> 
> It's been one of those days.

The very next day, at breakfast, Frigga mentioned that she was going to have to bow out of the walk she had planned to take with her surrogate niece around the palace grounds, and Loki piped up that he would gladly accompany Avi in her place.

Avi couldn't - quickly - come up with a reason why he shouldn't, so she acquiesced without a fight and commenced to worrying about whether she was going to spend the entire time trying to fend off his amorous advances, considering what he had said to her last night.

But she couldn't have been more surprised at his polite, almost courtly, behavior.

Promptly at ten, she heard a sharp rap at her door and found him standing outside it, and at her inward gasp and the unexpected - and unwanted - clenching of the area between her legs, she had to wonder if she was going to be doing battle with her own errant impulses more so than his.

He was gorgeous, she had to admit. Tall and lithe and powerfully built, with black hair that reached his shoulders and a leather and metal green and black outfit, both of which made her palms itch with the need to touch them, she instead clasped her own hands in front of her to prevent them from doing just that.

Loki offered her his arm but she declined it politely, apparently preferring to stay several paces apart from him, he thought wryly, judging by the distance she maintained carefully between them as they made their way to the gardens. 

She looked just as beautiful today as she had yesterday, although her dress was much more casual, some kind of burgundy colored breeches that clung obscenely to every curve - or what curves there should be, anyway; she was entirely too skinny to his mind - and a pretty top with tiny burgundy, blue and green flowers all over it. Her long hair was loose, caught at the back with a blue ribbon that matched the blue in her shirt.

"Am I not dressed appropriately, Prince Loki?" she asked, stopping mid-stride at the way he was staring at her. "Is this too casual for court? I would wish not be an embarrassment to y - the royal family and especially Aunt Frigga. I live a very simple life on Midgard and I feared I might not own appropriate clothing -"

"You look wonderful. Any clothing you wore could only enhance your natural beauty. I fear you shall put the flowers in the gardens to shame," he complimented, delighted at the way she blushed and they continued walking a bit closer together. "I thought I would show you the gardens - "

"Aunt Frigga was going to take me to the aviary, too - I really enjoy feeding wild birds at home and she thought I might enjoy seeing it."

It was the first flash of personality and excitement that he'd seen from her, and he liked it and wanted to see more.

Much more.

Despite that innocent desire, his body was constantly creating pictures of much more prurient desires in his mind of her spread beneath him, of that hair wrapped around his arm as he rode her hard from behind, of so many obscene images he had a hard time concentrating on anything but them. 

Loki brought her through the gardens first, which were in full bloom this time of year, and he was elated to realize that as he scrupulously kept a respectful distance from her, she kept drifting closer to him occasionally, until, by the time he finally guided her to the aviary - after he had teased her a bit about taking her to watch the paint dry on the north side of the tool shed first or some such other scintillating view in order to delay getting to the piece de resistance, and she, who had run a bit ahead of him, had turned around to walk backwards as he stalked towards her, begging him prettily to take her to see the birds instead.

He had, of course, relented, unbelievably, stupidly happy when - as they drew closer and they could hear the commotion the birds were making - she ran back to loop her arm into his and tried to drag him with her.

Seeing her so excited - from having been so gloomy last night - had him - what was for him - wreathed in smiles the entire time they were there and completely unable to look away from her. He'd been there thousands of times himself - especially as a boy, because he, too - like Frigga who had introduced him to it - had loved spending time in the presence of beautiful, delicate creatures.

Not necessarily birds, though, this time.

He spent a most enjoyable time watching her, leaning a shoulder against the stone wall just inside the circular enclosure, his eyes never leaving her.

Shortly, he felt a presence next to him, knowing exactly who it was.

"She is a special one, my Prince. See how the birds take to her. They know it, too."

Sevarra, the keeper of the aviary, sounded just as gravelly and ancient as he always had. "I agree."

"She has the way. She could tame the devil himself."

They both saw how Avi remained still in the center of the enclosure and the birds came to her, perching on her outstretched arms, the top of her head, even at the back of her neck beneath the curtain of hair she had loosed just so they could do exactly that.

"She does, and she may well be asked to," Loki couldn't keep himself from almost growling as he shouldered away from the wall and advanced towards her. 

The birds scattered at his approach, causing her to look crestfallen for a moment, and he couldn't have that. So he made so bold as to stretch her right arm out again, adjusting her hand so that her palm was cupped, then touching the center of it, where appeared - as he travelled to the other hand and did the same thing - a pile of bird food.

In her other hand, she found a deposit of honey water.

"Stay still again and they will come back. They just do not like me anywhere near as well as they like you." He winked at her with an almost smile. "And I cannot blame them in the least for their excellent taste." Then he stepped away from her again to lean against the nearby tree that a lot of the birds were perched in.

But not for long.

Coming to the aviary wasn't something he did at all any more. He'd outgrown it. But he could see spending as much time here as she wanted to - because it was the first time he saw her truly smile.

And, when a tiny hummingbird cautiously approached then landed on the hand that held the honey water, he would swear he heard her giggle and his heart clenched at the sound, making him feel as if he could barely breathe.

If this place made her happy, he'd stay here with her forever.

But eventually, he could see that, although her enthusiasm hadn't waned in the least - she was still covered in birds as he'd made certain the piles of bribes in her hands would never wane - he could see that she was growing tired, and he became instantly mindful of what his mother had said about how she had damaged her health in favor of caring for her husband. 

He was going to make sure that that stopped immediately. As much as he lauded her efforts and obvious devotion, he was appalled at the idea that she was so willing to sacrifice herself for him, and he intended to ensure that she recovered as fully as possible while she was here, even if that meant curbing her fun a bit.

Loki approached her slowly, his hand out to her as hers were to the birds, and he realized that coaxing her to his hand wasn't all that different - she was tiny and delicate and cautious, and he would have to prove to her that he could be trusted to take care of her.

Whether she wanted him to or not, at the moment.

Her small hand - emptied magically of its treasures - slipped naturally into his as she flashed him a radiant smile that nearly stopped his heart. He had to take a bit of a pause, which he was careful she not notice, during which she fell into step next to him, even allowing him to drape his arm casually around her waist.

"I noticed you were looking a bit tired, Princess Avi, and I thought we might have a picnic lunch."

"Please, can we dispense with the formal titles, especially since mine is, essentially, a lie?" she asked sweetly, looking up at him.

At that moment, with her eyes sparkling a bit, her face warm and rosy from the sun, he would have given her anything she asked for.

"Of course. And you must call me Loki, but I beg to differ. You are most definitely a Princess, through and through, if one with out a realm, currently."

She chuckled. "That's not likely to ever change, unless your father should suddenly decide to gift me back my father's lands on Asgard, which I highly doubt."

Avi felt him flinch and his face darkened momentarily at her words. She stopped, her hand light on his arm, looking concerned. "Did I say something wrong?"

Loki smiled down at her. "No, my Princess. You did not."

She didn't look all that convinced, and remained quiet for the rest of their short walk to a beautiful meadow where the royal horses were often grazed.

There was a big shade tree near the fence, and they headed for that. 

"How are we to have a lunch when neither of us brought anything to eat, nor any other provisions?" she asked as they took refuge beneath its broad-leaved limbs.

She watched him as he waved his arm and a blanket appeared, laden with foods of all types, some of which she'd had before - some of which were even Midgardian - but most not.

"Wow - how did you - " She stopped herself mid sentence. "How dense I have become. That's right. Aunt Frigga taught you her magicks."

"I am well past Mo-Mother now, but yes. She was the origin of my interest in spell casting." Loki frowned. She looked . . . displeased, somehow. "Are you against the use of magic?" he asked carefully.

Realizing she might have inadvertently given offense, Avi touched his hand, squeezing it for a brief second then letting it go. "I have little experience with it, having spent most of my life on Midgard. But . . . " She hesitated, not wanting to compound her error.

Loki gave her a solemn look. "You must always tell me the truth, little one, even if you think it's something I won't like hearing, or if it's something that you think is going to get you into trouble."

Her eyes flared in outrage and she colored a bit at his bold choice of words, but she refused to acknowledge the outrageous, presumptuous thing he'd said, or the tone in which he'd said it that seemed to say that he thought that - on one day's acquaintance - that he had the right to make such statements to her, or assume such power over her.

But she didn't wish to spoil what was overall a lovely time by arguing that point at the moment. She would deal with it when and if it became a problem in the future - and she had a flash of intuition that it might well, and that she might end up arguing with herself, too, considering how her body had come alive just at the thought of him being . . . like that with her, towards her . . . protective, attentive to her . . . even to what some might think of as an inappropriate extent.

Instead, she finished her thought unaltered. "I have to say that, given a choice, I think I would always choose a more natural approach."

Loki gave her a half-smile. "Does that mean that you would prefer that I should away the food and wine and blanket and we should trudge back to the palace to beg food of the cook at the kitchen door?"

The idea of Prince Loki begging for _anything_ was too absurd a thought. That bit of exaggeration earned him the first out and out laughter he'd heard from her.

And he vowed, then and there, to be the cause of much more of it, even if it was at his own expense.

In answer, she circled the blanket, eyeing all of the delicacies, then took a seat on a corner of it, close to the tree, looking up at him expectantly.

Loki took a seat directly across from her, and more in front of the tree trunk.

She automatically began to make a plate for him, asking him what he liked the most of.

Until Loki leaned over and took the plate away from her - gently - making one for her, instead. "I do not need taking care of," he rebuked softly.

"Nor do I," she returned blithely, staring at the food but not seeing it, feeling suddenly quite awkward with him.

"That remains to be seen - and I would hazard a guess that my Mother would disagree with you about that."

Avi sighed. "She's overprotective."

"Good. I have a feeling you could do with some overprotection."

"I am a grown, mar - widowed woman, Loki, not a child."

"Avi," he said, calmly but firmly, raising his eyebrow at her and managing to look entirely too stern for her comfort. "That you are," he inclined his head to her, "undoubtedly a woman is not in dispute. Whether or not you are taking good care of yourself is, however - from what Mother said at dinner last night, I gather that your health is rather delicate -"

He held out the plate he had made for her of things he hoped she would try and like, but Avi was too affronted to take it, and instead she snorted and got up, glaring down at him. "I'll thank you to realize that neither I nor my health is blasted delicate, and I am thoroughly sick of being treated as if I'm about to collapse at any moment. Thank you for the walk and the time at the aviary, Loki, but I suddenly find I have no appetite."

For the second time in as many days, she ran away from him.

It was getting to be a habit.

One he intended to discourage quite severely.

For the moment, though, he contented himself with watching her go, seeing that long banner of what he imagined to be silky waves flying out behind her, his eyes glued to that delectable bottom of hers.

Which he had a feeling was going to spend most of its time a shade not unlike the one of the pants she was currently wearing once she'd accepted that she was his. He would spoil and adore her, but he would not tolerate tantrums of any kind. And running away from him definitely qualified as a tantrum.

He plucked a grape from the bunch nearest to him and popped it into his mouth, lying back for a long moment, indulging himself in sensual fantasies about her that just left him more frustrated than before. Then he stood, waved the feast away, and began to walk back to the palace.

He had some questions about Avi and he knew exactly who to go to get them answered.


	3. Chapter 3

Dinner was a quiet and strictly family affair, as Avi had begged off.

"Is she all right?" Loki asked, seeing the small smile the question brought to Frigga's lips, and knowing that she already suspected that which was true - that he was interested in Avi. Not that he was going to satisfy her curiosity about that particular subject any time soon - although she had been a considerable help and reference this afternoon about all things Avi, for which she had earned his gratitude.

She was just a bit too eager about the possibility of the two of them getting together, and Loki had no intentions of encouraging her along those lines - regardless of the fact that he wanted more from Avi than his mother could probably begin to think of.

Although his first impulse was to jump up and go see if she was all right, he suppressed it and finished his meal. Excusing himself and declining an invitation from Thor to go out drinking, he went to his room and wandered about aimlessly in it for a long while, trying to distract himself from thoughts of her, but remaining entirely unable to do so.

Finally, he gave up and went to her chambers, which were near his, rapping loudly on the door.

"Who is it?" she asked, brokenly, after a long moment, and he knew that she had been crying.

"It is Loki." 

The door opened suddenly but not completely, and she stood there, her arms folded defiantly across her chest. "What do you want?"

There went that eyebrow again into his jet black hairline. For some reason the sight of it - and the sure knowledge of the disapproval that it conveyed - made her want to squirm and fidget nervously under his gaze, which she refused to do, and her brave stance was a way of not letting him see those treacherous impulses.

She had a feeling that, despite how kind he had been to her, he was not someone to whom one wanted to reveal weaknesses of any sort.

"You were sorely missed at dinner. Thor had no one to reduce to tears and send running from the table." He meant it as a joke, but she certainly wasn't laughing. She looked angry. He decided to try a different tack. "I have come to make sure you are well and have suffered no ill effects from missing both lunch and dinner." 

Why did his protectiveness annoy her so?

Precisely because it _didn't_ annoy her, she realized. It warmed her heart - and other areas on her person - entirely too much - while it annoyed the crap out of her at the same time.

"I'm fine, thank you," came the clipped, dismissive response.

"May I come in?" he asked in a tone that said he wondered why he wasn't already there.

It was a bad idea, she knew. She shouldn't allow someone who was, essentially, a stranger, however royal his blood, into her chamber - especially not someone like Loki, a known trickster who had already confessed his interest in her and demonstrated that he wouldn't hesitate to try to - 

To what?

To look after her? Was that really so horrible an impulse in a man?

But she knew, deep down, that it was more than that - that he would demand much more from her, perhaps more than she was capable of giving. He had mentioned that she could be "in trouble" with him, and her body had clenched at his words and the tenor of his voice as he'd said them - strong and unyielding, but not unkind, either.

But somehow, too lost in those disturbing thoughts, she found herself stepping aside anyway, closing the door behind him, knowing the entire time that she was doing the wrong thing, but unable to stop herself.

"If you are feeling better, I could have cook send up a tray . . ." Loki offered, drinking in the sight of her in a perfectly proper flowing robe in varying shades of amethyst that revealed absolutely nothing but managed to render him hard as a rock anyway, despite - or perhaps because - of its modest innocence. And noting, with no small amount of elation as his eyes swept about the room, that the vase of flowers he had given her still resided on the nightstand next to her bed, where he had made sure they had magically appeared after she ran from him last night.

That earned him a look that should have singed his eyelashes. "I wish everyone -" she stared pointedly at him " - would stop worrying about me when I'm perfectly all right. I'm hardly going to waste away to nothing for having skipped two meals." She stood there - all prickly and bold - in the middle of the room, arms still folded over her chest, glaring at him, as if she was spoiling for a fight.

"No, but you will agree that it is inadvisable, especially for someone who is still recovering from a serious illness," he responded calmly, coming to stand in front of her, mirroring her position and posture. His mother had told him that Avi had spent a good portion of the past few weeks in the hospital, recovering from a particularly bad bout of pneumonia that had been so tenacious, in part, because of how run down she had allowed herself to get.

He could see her jaw working agitatedly. "I can see I need to have a word with Aunt Frigga about keeping private things private."

Sternly, firmly, "You will do no such thing, Avi." Her eyes went round and she opened her mouth to take him to task for trying to order her around when he had no authority over her whatsoever, when he interrupted her outrage by continuing calmly, "I will not have you upsetting my mother, especially when all she was doing was responding to my questions. She was not trying to betray any trusts that might exist between the two of you - she would never do that. She was merely doing her best to satisfy my curiosity about you."

If she was going to be angry at anyone, let it be him.

Avi was a bit taken aback, and, if she had to admit it, impressed that he was apparently at least as protective of his mother as he had been trying to be of her.

To say nothing about his apparent interest in her his statement revealed . . . but she preferred to dismiss that as idle curiosity. That made it much easier to deal with.

Even if, try as she might, she couldn't really.

Because she knew it wasn't.

She backed down - a bit. "I'm sorry. I did not mean to give offense. I'm just - everyone treats me as if I'm going to crumple or shatter and it just makes me want to - crumple and shatter." She gave a watery laugh and Loki tamped down his immediate impulse to whisk her into his arms and dry her tears. "I didn't do it while Talm was alive - why would I now?"

Loki took his time responding, moving away from her to hitch a long leg onto the big window seat, deliberately sitting across the room from her and not looking at her. "You already know the answer to that, my princess. They are just showing their concern for you. Most have been in the same position you are in, having lost loved ones, and they know from their own experience that you cannot remain strong forever - that there are already breeches in the walls you have so carefully constructed around yourself in order to cope with what happened - and you not eating or sleeping well, and neglecting yourself into serious illness, are signs of those cracks."

Suddenly, she couldn't take another moment of him being so blasted nice and understanding to her. It was worse than Frigga doing the same thing, or her in-laws, or her friends, and all of her pent up emotions - five years worth of them from the time his illness was diagnosed as being in its final stages - to this very moment - seemed to be battering at the gates to get out, no matter how much she'd already cried.

And she had.

So much so that, each time she was quite sure that there would never be another tear.

Until the inevitable next time.

And now it seemed they were going to refuse to be backed down again, and it was going to be worse than usual because she'd managed to keep it at bay for so long. She was going to completely lose it.

Here.

Now.

In front of _him_ , where she least wanted this to happen.

But it did - washing over her like a tidal wave and taking with it any semblance of the control over herself that she had struggled so hard to maintain for so long, since it was the only kind of control she had been _allowed_ in that untenable situation.

 _Nothing else_ was within her meager power.

Loki knew what was happening to her with a clear vision that was unusual for him to have about another person, and when she finally crumpled the way she had so adamantly stated that she wouldn't just a few seconds before, he was there to catch her before she hit the floor, collecting her to him and spiriting them both back to the big window seat where he folded her against him and simply held her.

He didn't try to get her to stop crying, he didn't get upset, he didn't do anything but be there with her, letting her curl up on his chest like a kitten and cry it out, providing a safe, warm place for her to experience a catharsis that was years in the making.

Perhaps decades.

He couldn’t help but realize that she felt amazing in his arms, knowing it was an entirely inappropriate thought considering the situation, but his mind went where it went and he refused to feel guilty about it.

When her sobs subsided a bit, he produced a handkerchief and tenderly dried her eyes, pressing it into her hand in case she had further need of it and stroking her hair back from her damp temples, humming tunelessly in a manner he hoped she found soothing and occasionally kissing the top of her head, which still smelled like the sunshine they had been out in this afternoon and the lilac scent he was rapidly beginning to associate with her.

She showed no signs of wanting to get up, for which he was eternally grateful. He had stretched himself out on the seat as best he could, half sitting up, with her stretched out atop him, her small hand still wound into his tunic.

After a few long, glorious moments, during which he allowed his mind to wander into the forbidden territory of a fantasy that involved them being in this position because he was comforting her after a particularly harsh punishment, she started and tried to get up, as if she'd suddenly realized where she was and had become terribly self-conscious about it.

He let her lever herself away from him a bit, but not far, immediately missing the warmth of her draped over him.

"Oh, Loki, I'm so sorry - I didn't mean to -"

"Shhhhh. You are safe here, with me," he comforted hypnotically.

"But -" her protest was much weaker this time, her resolve eaten away by that one big hand that travelled rhythmically up and down her back, his other arm tight around her.

" _Safe_ ," he repeated, exerting just the tiniest bit of pressure at her mid back, encouraging her to lie back down, inwardly elated when she did. And when he spoke, he knew he was revealing entirely too much of his own hand, but he didn't care. "I will never tell another living soul about _anything_ that happens between us, because it is much too sacred for anyone else's ears but our own."

Avi raised her head from where it had settled onto his chest, her damp eyes seeking his - needing to find them quite desperately for some reason, and when she did, it was like a bolt of lightening to her mind - and her loins.

He had calmed one storm that had raged within her and quite effortlessly conjured another. He was just about the diametric opposite to Talm in every possible way. He was a God, with infinite power and a penchant for mischief.

And yet she had never felt more secure in her life, more so, even, than in her dear husband's arms because of what had always loomed before them - the sure knowledge that that they hadn't much time together, and the bare, bald fact that Talm had neither the strength nor the courage - even when he was somewhat healthier at the beginning of their relationship - to protect her from anything or anyone.

Loki possessed both qualities - along with a healthy dose of dominance - in spades.

Perhaps a bit too much of each for her comfort, in fact.

But he had treated her - over the past less than two days - with nothing but the utmost courtesy and care - however pushy he had been at times. It wasn't necessarily a bad pushy, just one she was unused to, especially from someone she didn't really know who didn't really know her.

Loki could only be just so good, and his body was rebelling against the strict constraints he'd forced on it. Before he knew it, his finger had slipped beneath her chin, keeping her face tilted up as his began to slowly lean down towards her.

"I am going to kiss you, my flower," he whispered huskily, seconds before his lips melted onto hers, the hand that had been holding her chin coming round to cup the back of her head lightly, instead.

When his tongue touched her lips not quite tentatively, not quite demandingly, and - unbelievably - hers opened before it, the dam broke and he took her mouth, the arm around her waist contracting and lifting her to him more, dragging her body over his, not caring that the tunic he was wearing was very bad at concealing much of anything about how he was feeling.

She struggled, just a bit, at first, tiny, feminine hands pressing at his broad shoulders, and he eased back slightly - barely able to accomplish that small feat, using all of his will to do so, feeling her tremble and how her fingers grasped at his shirt spasmodically as his mouth slanted across hers. When her tongue met his - hesitantly at first - his hips arched blindly into hers.

One hand buried in her hair, the other holding tight at the small of her back, he moved the smallest distance away from her that he could, yet still nuzzled her nose with his, nibbling avidly at her well-kissed mouth as if he would never get enough of them. as he stood with her in his arms and began to walk towards the bed.

"Loki, no -" He didn't like the way she sounded, suddenly, at all - not carried away by desire but entirely too close to afraid.

He stopped instantly several strides from the edge of the bed, sliding her slowly down his body until her feet touched the floor, but maintaining a hard arm around her, his lips following her down to claim hers again passionately once her heels hit the floor, grateful to realize that she was still kissing him back, although he could also feel that she was shaking against him. One big hand cupped her jaw, thumb barely brushing her cheek as he breathed, "I understand, I do, and I want you to try to remember that, even if I might be a bit overzealous occasionally, you are _always_ safe with me." He paused, looking down at her intently. "Or, perhaps a better way of putting it is that you are as safe with me as you _wish_ to be."

She gasped slightly at his words, biting her lip a bit, but he could see a lot of guilt around the edges of her eyes, too. 

As much as the howling demands of his body didn't want him to, he relented a bit in the face of her trepidation. "I will tuck you into bed. You have my solemn word that I will do nothing you don't want me to."

As if he couldn't imagine that she would object to that quiet request, he didn't bother to wait for her express her consent but untied the loose bow she'd made with the belt at her waist, moving behind her to catch his fingers between the neckline of the robe he was removing and her nightgown, but of course, finding the sensitive nape of her neck first which caused her to shiver violently, those sure, knowing fingers lingering there - knowing full well what havoc he was wreaking within her - before they withdrew to try again.

He placed the robe at the end of the bed, then turned back to her and caught her eye as he sank to his knees before her unhesitatingly, lifting the hem of her nightgown just enough to find and gently capture a foot, her lower calf cupped in his palm as he removed her slipper with his other hand, doing the same with the other, seeing her immediately scrunch her tiny toes into the deep pile carpet beneath them making him grin like a dolt.

Then, as if he was taking her to a formal ball rather than a few feet to her bed, he bowed low and offered her his arm, the absurdity of which had the exact effect he was going for - it made her smile and look much less scared.

In turn, she curtseyed low before him - an act that he realized she had no idea revealed nearly all of her beautiful breasts to him due to the fact that her gown was a good size or two too big for her and it gaped away from her body as she did so - not that he was going to object or even say anything about it.

He was trying to be good, but he was never going to achieve sainthood.

Loki pulled her up and guided her the few steps to the edge of the bed, reaching around her to tug the sheet and blanket back, going so far, once she'd sat down, as reaching down to loop an arm around her ankles and bring her feet up under the covers, pulling them over her as he took a seat next to her on the bed, crowding her over a bit.

"Are you sure you do not want me to have cook send up a bedtime snack?" he asked solicitously.

"No, thank you, Loki."

He adored the sound of his name on her lips - but he intended that she would most often be screaming it in ecstasy, once she was his. 

His chin lowered nearly to his chest and he gave her a look that made her feel thoroughly warned. "All right then, but I expect you to eat a good breakfast - and I _will_ be paying attention to whether or not you do." Before she could get out any objections to his autocratic declaration, he continued, "You will have need of it. I have plans for us tomorrow."

His attempt at distracting her worked, because she looked surprised at his last statement rather than the anger he knew she'd felt at his first declarations. "You do?"

"I do."

"What are they? Tell me!" she demanded.

He liked her eager and engaged, but demurred nonetheless. "I believe I shall keep it as a surprise."

She looked disappointed, but recovered quickly. "Loki?"

"Yes, my princess?"

"It was wonderful of you to do this for me - getting me all comfy here and everything; it makes me feel very . . . " she knew she must choose her words carefully, "special, but I find I'm not at all tired."

If she had simply yawned and been the slightest bit sleepy, he could have left the room as innocently as he'd entered it, leaving her wholly untouched for at least another night.

But what she said, however innocently intended, was like waving a red flag in front of a bull.

There were so many things he could think of to do to her that would render her asleep before her body finished spasming, and he fully intended to each and every one of them to her over the course of time.

But now?

Ungentlemanly desires rampaged through his body, leaving him weak and vulnerable, and susceptible to all _sorts_ of very bad impulses.

And undeniably hungry for the very morsel he'd just safely tucked up against doing that which he was now contemplating.

As a study in torturing himself, fully expecting to be thrown out for his audacity, which might not be a bad thing at all, he acknowledged to himself, he asked, "Tell me, Avi, was your husband capable of attending to your intimate needs, as a man does for his wife?"

"Loki!" She looked insulted but wasn't raging at him as he had half-expected.

And thus the grin he gave her was completely unrepentant. 

But then he was kissing her, their breath mingling as he drew her down the bed so that she was on her back, raising her wrists over her head slowly, giving her more than enough time to object to his highly inappropriate behavior.

When she simply stared up at him, apparently agog at what he was doing, he pressed his advantage, rolling a bit to one side to throw the covers he'd carefully placed over her off of her again and returning to lie mostly on top of her, reaching for the ribbon tie at the top of her nightgown, directly between her breasts.

He caught her eye as he did so, holding hers every step of the way, noting how round and astonished they looked and the way her beautiful bow mouth hung open in surprise, as he said sternly, by way of testing her response to such things from him, "My darling princess, I feel I must warn you that I will consider the fact that you have not so far raised any objections to my rakish advances on your person as tantamount to an endorsement of them."

By the time he had stopped speaking, Loki had bared her to her waist, and yet he forced himself not to look down at what he already knew were truly wondrous delicacies that had his mouth watering with the need to kiss them, but to keep staring into her eyes.

"I want you, little one, and I mean to have you writhing beneath me, begging me to take you harder and imploding in my arms time and again, till you falling asleep in them becomes an act of self-preservation."

He waited one horribly long, torturous moment to give her enough time to tell him to get out and that she never wanted to see him again, which he still expected her to do any minute now.

But all she did was stare back at him and bite her lip, her eyes a bit moist with potential tears. Assuming that he was correct about the inspiration for them, he intended to keep her attention on what he was doing to her so that she had no time to recall what intimacy had been like with her husband.

And about which he had his doubts, thinking that if the man was as infirmed as his Mother had said, he might well not have been physically capable of taking her. He wouldn't be in the least surprised to find that she was as untouched as the day she was born.

Loki experienced a strange twinge of sadness for the man he considered to be his rival - despite his demise - if that was the case. To be married to such perfection and not be able to claim her fully, as any man would want to do, must've been truly horrible for him.

But then again, if he was incapable himself, he'd definitely still want to have her around him, regardless, so, if that was the case, perhaps he was lucky, after a fashion.

Loki was most definitely not sick. He was most certainly _firmed_ , to the point that he thought he was going to perish if he couldn't drive himself into her within the next few seconds.

Although his mind was not about to allow that to happen. She was not some temporary liaison, where he would be able to ensure that a very enjoyable time was had by the both of them and then walk blithely away.

No, she might not have been considered "suitable" by anyone else, but she suited him to a "t", and once he'd made her his own, he didn't intend to relinquish so much as a hair on her head - tradition and requirements regarding who was qualified to become a Princess Royal of Asgard be damned.

Finally letting out a bit of the reins he had been holding so tightly on himself, he allowed himself to drink in her naked beauty, the perfection of those pink rose nipples - that he was gratified beyond measure to watch blooming beneath his ardent gaze - and, as he bent his head to capture one against the roof of his mouth, cupping it with his tongue and holding it there as he suckled gently at first, then less so, he noted that the rise and fall of her chest was already erratic.

She _wanted_ him.

The thought sent hot blood flooding into his cock, making him thrust rhythmically, mindlessly against her, the light gown she was wearing keeping them separated - barely.

He was right that she wanted him. Avi wasn't very far behind him, she was loathe to admit. In fact, she refused to admit to herself just what was happening. She didn't want to think about this - she just wanted to feel what he brought to her so effortlessly, just by his mere existence.

She was aware of him in a way she'd never been aware of any man before in her life. He'd barely touched her, and yet she'd spent last night - after fleeing from him like a coward - tossing and turning, her dreams full of him, much more than they ever had been of Talm, of him doing unspeakable things to her - and her enjoying every sinful bit of it.

More than she ever had with Talm, who had been capable, at first, but of not much more than finding his own fumbling release within her, and often not even making it to that.

There would be no such tentative timidity with Loki, she knew, although he had said that she was safe with him, and despite his reputation to the contrary, she wanted to believe him.

She must believe him on some level, or she wouldn't be in the vulnerable position she was in now.

Avi tugged experimentally at her arms and found they could not be dislodged from his hold.

He looked up from his extremely enjoyable task to give her a concerned look, although his voice was liquid sex, deep and gravelly and like another hand on her most secret spots. "Are you all right?"

"Yes . . ."

He sat up just a bit, his eyes intent on hers.. "Is it uncomfortable for me to hold your arms like this?"

"Uncomfortable?" she parroted back at him, still pulling and twisting as far as his heavy presence would allow and getting nowhere. "Uh . . . no . . . bu -"

"Are you afraid I will hurt you?" He held his breath before she answered, although he didn't think she could tell.

"Uh - n-no - b-"

"Well, then my little Avi, I will repeat what I said to you last night essentially the same thing that sent you fleeing from me to your room - why do you not just let me take care of you?" He knew she would intuit the "tonight" he left off, although he meant "forever" and carefully didn't say that, either. "I have given you my word that I will see to your safety, you need have no doubt about that. The world may dissolve around us, but I will guard you with my life - even from myself and my _own_ worst tendencies." He gave her a wry - if somewhat tight from his body's rapidly multiplying demands - smile. "There is nothing I want more from you than to see you cry out in ecstasy that I have brought you, to worship and cherish you with my body - my hands, my mind . . . my heart." He hesitated for but a second, then admitted baldly, achingly, "I would consider it the highest honor I have ever known if you would consent to surrender yourself into my care -" he paused there, wishing he thought he could actually stop there, then added, "for the night." 

She opened her mouth to speak and he laid a finger over her lips.

"However, I want you to know that I understand completely if you do not feel you know me well enough to do so. You have but to say the word and I will leave you."

So he would have all of her or nothing, Avi realized. Either she submitted herself to him, or he would withdraw to his own room.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NSFW as of this chapter on.
> 
> Mature Audiences ONLY!
> 
> Originally I had this story as having 8 chapters - but in editing I noticed that I misnumbered them and it only has 7.
> 
> This is a longer chapter - and the one at which I originally stopped. I kinda still think that that would have been for the best, but we'll see what you guys think.

She knew what she should do. She should tell him that it was too soon - that they had barely met. The words - sound, pragmatic, thoughtful words - that would send him away from her - clogged her throat.

And died there.

Avi had spent the better part of a decade - not one second of which did she regret in any way - being Talm's rock - at his beck and call - not that he was ever, even at the end when he needed her the most, the type to abuse that devotion in the least - but that was the bare truth of the matter.

But here was someone who had already - multiple times - expressed a keen interest in taking care of _her_. Someone who look at her with blatant longing on his face that he didn't bother to hide, and who had already gone a long way towards preparing her body for him - whether or not she received him tonight - in a quite gentlemanly, if highly erotic, manner.

The thought of being with someone like him - who obviously knew exactly what he was doing, who had already let it be known that he wanted her to submit to him in a sexual way, and more - was quite overwhelming, though, and that wasn't even taking into considerable his physicality - he was a big man, dwarfing her easily, which - if she was honest with herself - only made her feel just that much more secure with him, somehow.

Swallowing hard, she stopped trying to get her hands back, allowing her gaze to wander slowly up the long impressive length of him - his clothing disappearing before her eyes and causing her to blush prettily as they made the slow, lingering journey to collide with his. 

One eyebrow was raised questioningly, until she whispered in a tone that was much more tentative - and plaintive - than she'd intended, ""Yes, please."

The smile that spread over his face was one of pure happiness - laced around the edges with just enough devilishness to make her heart start to slam against her ribcage, wondering if she'd just made a very bad decision.

But Loki wasn't going to give her time to think, or the chance to change her mind, although his movements were completely unhurried. He rolled off her to one side, dispensing with what little had remained of her gown with an elegant wave of his hand, leaving her nude with him and before him.

Unable to stop herself, Avi crossed her legs tightly in reaction and immediately began to renew her attempts at freeing her hands, to no avail.

"Shhhhh, sweetheart," he soothed, then undid that soothing by saying, "Don't upset yourself about things over which you have no control."

That drew a startled little gasp and a slight moan from her, as if she hadn't really realized what she'd agreed to.

Or perhaps she _had_ but having actually heard it said out loud, deep and low, was just now making it settle into somewhere that hadn't been awakened like this in quite some time.

He preferred to believe the latter. Unless he heard or saw signs of true distress from her, he intended to do exactly what he'd said he would - what she had so sweetly and shyly said yes to. And he intended to do it many times - and in as many ways - as he could before she fell asleep from sated, happy exhaustion.

Avi couldn't seem to stop fidgeting, not quite frantically trying to free herself.

Until he spoke.

"I'm afraid, my lovely, that if you don't stop wiggling like that, I'm going to have to spank you."

She was instantly still and stiff.

Not exactly what he'd intended, but the bright blush that suffused her face, spilling down into her graceful neck and on to tops of her breasts spoke volumes that she apparently couldn't, beyond moaning a barely audible, very breathy, "No, Loki . . . "

No ranting or railing against it.

No calling him a bastard or an abuser.

No yelling whatsoever, no outrage, no distress beyond that which was obviously caused by arousal.

"Yes, if you do not choose to behave this evening, and do as you are told, I will _definitely_ spank you." He stretched himself out over her, his face about an inch above hers, his voice terrifyingly calm. "Think very carefully before you disobey me, Avi - tonight and hereafter - because I _will_ punish you for it and you _will_ cry as a result. That is as much of a promise to you as is my vow to keep you from harm - whether from external forces or your own neglect of yourself."

Avi opened her mouth to protest, but just then he turned her gently onto her tummy and began to work his way down the length of her, dragging his full blown body against hers, hands claiming every part of her - some more than others, of course - squeezing and massaging as he did so.

Ant that was more than distracting enough to keep her from protesting his high-handedness.

But she was confused. How was it that her arms were still held together above her head, and yet he was down there, busily separating her thighs to a shameless extent despite her reluctance to do so, nipping at the delectable flesh of her bottom when she was slow in obeying him.

But, after his little warning, all it took was him saying, "Avi," in that stern, expectant way and she found herself giving up the fight against him and allowing her knees to be brought up beneath her and positioned practically on opposite sides of the bed, leaving her feeling dreadfully exposed to him.

Somehow, though, she never expected what he did next, turning onto his back, licking and nibbling the insides of her thighs, biting them playfully but stopping when the marvelously erotic sounds she had been making became less aroused and more distressed, making a permanent mental note that that was something she apparently didn't enjoy.

Even then, her mind never conjured the possibility of where his face ended up, slipping between the thighs he had just been tasting, those big hands of his positioning her privates _directly_ over his mouth, squeezing her buttocks intimately once, then moving slowly, possessively up her body, slipping between her and the bed to cup her breasts, massaging a bit at first, then, just as his warm, wet mouth made its first eager contact with her privates, those skilled fingers found her nipples and began to pinch them -gently at first, then less so - in synch with the way his mouth was loving every sopping wet inch of her.

Out of a sense of pure self-preservation, she tried to raise her hips - and thus the lady parts he was so eagerly exploring, but found she couldn't move her lower body any more than she could the hands that were still held - magically - well above her head.

Avi squealed then closed her mouth - while she still continued to squeal, only mutedly.

Moving almost not at all away from the sensitive spot he had already laid claim to, Loki admonished sternly, "No, my darling, you are not allowed to suppress your joy. I assure you that this room is soundproofed and thus I will not be deprived of hearing _every, single_ squeak and moan and keen you feel inspired to make. Do you understand?"

He - he wanted her to be coherent enough to answer him? Did he know that his mouth - his tongue - his lips - were … _there_? Devouring her whole and creating sensations no man had ever inspired in her before, even during his little speech?

She did her best to try to reply to him. "Mmmm . . . I . . . oh . . . "

The first swat _cracked_ loudly across her bottom, making her try to buck her hips away from the source of the pain, and succeeding only in realizing that the only way he would allow her to move them was closer to him, so that she ended up instead offering herself more fully to him where he lay beneath her.

The second spank caught her as much by surprise as the first - and her shriek rapidly became a howl instead.

What was it that he wanted her to say? she tried desperately to remember before another - 

Too late.

Avi endured ten swats total and tears were more than threatening before she was able to marshal her thoughts enough to give him the answer he was quietly, painfully demanding from her.

"Please, yes - I understand! Please _stop_ \- " she begged.

He had never missed a beat with the way he was exploring the most intimate parts of her, and now, even with the way her behind was burning, it felt even better than it had before - which was to say so good that she was quite certain that it was likely to kill her.

Avi was no stranger to pleasure. She had found herself relatively early on, and had continued to do so during her marriage, but away from Talm, so that he didn't feel badly that he wasn't able to satisfy her - his spirit was most definitely willing but his flesh was weak. It didn't matter to her one whit whether he did or not - her love not being dependant on carnal endeavors - but she recognized her own needs and satisfied them.

But this was _not_ that. Oh, it incorporated things she'd fantasized about - blushing even when she was alone in her own house in the middle of the night as she thought about them - but this was no fantasy.

This was someone _else_ \- someone she had less than no control over - who seemed to know her body - and her desires - better than she did, and who was paying strict attention to what he was doing that she obviously liked and eliminating those things she didn't with a scrupulousness that was going to send her rocketing to the Heavens any minute now.

"Avi?" he murmured against her, slowing to a stop at a time when she least wanted him to.

Knowing now that she was obligated to answer him as quickly as possible, she growled back at him, "Yes?" from sheer frustration, making him chuckle, which didn't help matters in the least.

"I am going to ask you question and I always want you to answer me honestly, but I also want to preface my question by saying that I am in no way want to hurry you. I could very happily spend the rest of the night - the rest of several whole months, in fact - right where I am, and I intend to do so in the near future," he promised threateningly. "But am I correct that you are close to your pleasure, lovely?"

"Y-yes," she sighed, wiggling her hips demandingly over him, trying to rub herself lewdly against him and receiving another sharp smack for her impudence in doing so.

"Excellent."

He sounded truly happy at her answer. She wasn't sure why she was surprised at that, but she was, kind of.

"Listen to me carefully." The impulse to add "my love" was on the tip of his tongue, but he thought that might make her feel uncomfortable, so he swallowed it, although it wasn't easy to do so. He hated feeling constrained with her in any way, especially that one. "You may cum whenever your body wants you to. Do not worry about hurting me by your reaction; you could not even if you wanted to. Just . . . let it happen. Submit your pleasure to me and I will guard it as zealously as I will always guard you."

Avi loved it when he spoke to her - even if he was saying something she might not like, she adored how he said it - he controlled his voice as easily as he did her.

He controlled his voice _to_ control her.

When he returned to his most wondrous pursuit, he moved his right hand from where it had been playing with her breast and brought it, instead, down to press a gently probing finger against her entrance to ascertain several things - one, that she wasn't a virgin, and two, that she was so wet that her honey dripped down over his finger, down his palm, over his wrist and a good ways down his forearm.

He thought he had never been so aroused by any woman in his very long life as he was by her - at that moment, and already many other times in their short acquaintance. 

Slowly, crossing his index and middle fingers, he began to twist them into her, advancing and retreating as if she _was_ virginal, until, at about halfway, he could wait no further and he jammed them all the way in, all at once.

Her head snapped up, he could feel the abrupt movement rippling along her body, and his own echoed her bone deep shudder as a guttural, savage moan he might not have thought her capable of until that moment was wrestled from low in her throat.

"Tell me you are all right," he growled, barely capable of speech but wanting to reassure himself that he wasn't misreading any cues from her.

Her response was slow in coming - for a few long seconds her mouth hung open, eyes heavy lidded at half mast, lips moving but unable to find her voice at the waves of bliss rolled through her, descending on the very point where his body had willfully, dominantly invaded hers.

"Oh, Loki, please . . .!" she rasped finally, hips working herself on fingers he held very still and stiff within her.

"Please what, Avi?" he teased, withdrawing those digits a bit and setting her to practically howling.

"Please, please, please, please, _please_ ," she begged, unable now to stimulate herself, her hips still undulating in search of him.

One long, lingering, obscenely lascivious kiss to that stiffened jewel of hers, then nothing.

"Tell me or I will strap you hard before I allow you to cum, Avi. This is your last chance to avoid that punishment."

It was just the impetus she needed to force her past her natural reticence.

"Cum!" she wailed the word, then, in whispered contrast, "Loki, please make me cum!"

He instantly began to hammer into her with those fingers, plastering his lips over every bit of her that he could manage to cover, suckling avidly, swirling and licking and fluttering and lapping the broad swathe of his tongue over her relentlessly as he felt her muscles beginning to tense.

Nothing in her limited experience could have prepared her for what he brought her, what he _drove_ her to - mindless, boneless, senseless ecstasy that built to such an extent that when it finally crested over her it swept Avi completely away with it, leaving her spent and limp and incapable of being anything anywhere near human, much less any semblance of coherency.

But he would not - could not - be satisfied with just that.

Loki effortlessly summoned that tsunami within her again and again, each time amazingly more powerful than the last, until she was too tired to beg him for mercy.

It turned out she didn't need to, for the moment, because he was moving.

Not away from her, but rather up her from beneath, instead, her invisibly bound arms still held together as they naturally looped around his neck and he entered her in one tremendous thrust that she was quite simply not equipped to handle on any level, especially not as totally vulnerable as she was to him at that moment.

In that already very helpless state, she felt him occupy her body, mind, and soul all at once, stretching, seeking and finding and filling every nook and cranny, those big hands on her hips, forcing her down over him again and again, taking every bit of her relentlessly and mercilessly and, in the end, although she might have doubted it at first, blissfully.

He had asked her to submit her pleasure to him, but she ended up being left with no choice but to simply submit _all of herself_ to him, letting him use her as he would, letting him position her in a manner that gave him the most pleasure, his eyes on her the entire time so that she saw their mutual ecstasy - that the pleasure she created within him made him crazy, too, tightening the muscles of that beautiful face into a grimace as he pistoned into her, rolling his hips and holding her still for his powerful invasions, not allowing her to accept anything less than all of him each time until his rhythm became more erratic, more insistent and he threw back his head and hollered her name, hips still rocketing his blindly seeking cock violently into her as it spurted deep within her and he shook and shuddered beneath her.

Neither of them moved - neither of them _could_ move - for the longest time. All they could do was lie there and pant, gulping desperately for air, reduced to being able to satisfying only that most basic of needs.

As she became more aware of herself and her surroundings - what she had allowed herself to do - and him to do to her - Avi felt the urgent need to hide, but where could she go? She tested her arms again and found they'd been released, so she tried to move off him, but one hard arm prevented it.

"Where do you think you are going, my princess?" he growled lazily, eyes still closed. "I am nowhere near finished with you yet."

Her surprised gulp had him opening his eyes to encounter her startled ones, a soft smile spreading over his lips. "But Loki -"

He rolled the both of them onto their sides. "Do not worry. I would never compromise your health. We will sleep, too."

"I wasn't concerned about that," she said, not thinking about how it might sound.

Loki looked puzzled. "Then what?"

Looking down, Avi blushed just as brightly now as she had before they'd made love, but said nothing, obviously too embarrassed to do so.

His finger tucked under her chin, he raised her eyes back to his. "No, my sweet, you must tell me. There should be no secrets between lovers."

"I - Talm - he - it must've been because he was sick . . ."

It took Loki a moment - he wasn't usually so dense, but he was nowhere near fully recovered from what had transpired between them. He didn't think he ever would be.

"Oh, your husband never had you but once a night?"

Avi nodded, so humiliated she thought she was going to be sick.

"Well," Loki rumbled, capturing her hand and bringing it to cover a cock that was almost fully erect again, already, unbelievably, but such was his constant desire for her, "I can assure you that I do not face such challenges."

However, whatever amorous intent he might have had was overridden by the rude sound of someone's stomach rumbling - and it wasn't his.

He laughed. "I think we will be sending for that tray from the kitchen now." Loki bounded out of bed, unselfconsciously naked.

"But we can't - the servants - they'll - " her blush, unbelievably, deepened. "They'll . . . _know_ ," she whispered as if it was a state secret.

He chuckled indulgently. "And what if they do?" 

"It's highly improper for you to be here."

He knelt next to the bed, facing her, arms resting akimbo on the bed, reaching out to play with a strand of her hair. "I am of a mind that it would be even more indecent and ungentlemanly of me to leave before you have had a chance to fall asleep in my arms."

How could she possibly object when he said things like that to her?

Although she did still hide in the bathroom when the servant came, Loki's amused chuckles ringing in her ears as she did so.

 

 

Loki handled the procurement of food as if he summoned food to a bedroom that was not his in the middle of every night - which was something she hadn't thought of.

He probably did. After all, he was a gorgeous, eligible prince. She imagined he had more women chasing him than he knew what to do with.

Well, she had no doubt he would know what to do with them, but there had to be a long line of beautiful women standing outside his bed chamber day and night.

That thought was not a happy one, and it occupied her thoughts, growing and expanding to enormous proportions within her mind.

But soon the food arrived and she found herself distracted because he refused to let her feed herself, giving her an assessing look that left no doubt that he found something amiss as he held the heavily laden tray out of her reach - which was easy enough to do at his height.

"No, I think I will feed the both of us. I do not trust you not to take a morsel the size of a pea and then declare that you are full."

Avi, who was kneeling on the bed, trying unsuccessfully to thwart him and reach up to pick what she wanted off the tray, put her hands on her hips. "That's just ridiculous."

"Sit down," he commanded, every inch the Prince of Asgard, used to being obeyed.

She remained exactly where she was.

The tray of food vanished into thin air and he joined her on the bed in the blink of an eye, even in a kneeling position that mirrored her own able to tower over her.

But Avi didn't back down.

One eyebrow rose. "Do you need another spanking, my l - princess?"

She was sitting, leaning against the pillows, almost before he finished his threat, which had him chuckling at her expense again and her glaring up at him, lips pursed together in a blatant pout.

He made her eat more than she would have chosen to, but not so much that she was uncomfortably full, and then he tucked her into bed for the second time that night, although this time, he was right behind her as she lay on her side, molding himself to her, completely surrounding her with his warmth and strength.

"Sleep, lovely one, although not for too long. I will have every bit of you I can this night, Avi. And, in the morning, we will talk."

As exhausted as she was - and she was more tired - but in a better way - than she could ever remember being in her life - his last words and her concerns about how many women paraded through his bed on a daily basis had her thinking about things she shouldn't have, and no matter how hard she tried to shake it, that uneasy feeling - that this could be right because they barely knew each other as well as real concerns about other women he could have currently or had had in the past, among other worries, crept had crept into her mind and refused to be budged.

Even after he'd awakened her several times in the night to bring her to heights she never imagined existed, the doubts and concerns she had about him - and herself - were there, waiting for her whenever he wasn't distracting her from them.

It had all happened much too fast for her. She was far from the type to end up in bed with a man she'd just met. She'd only ever been intimate with one other man in her life, and yet here she was, lying naked in what was, essentially, a strange man's - God's - arms!

She didn't regret what they'd done - far from it. He'd shown her all the good things that were possible between a man and a woman.

But she wasn't cut out to be a fling, and, somehow, she couldn't think that he was the settling down type, like she was - despite his occasional hints to the contrary - or he'd already be . .. settled down, with someone other than her, someone much more suitable.

And just what did domestic bliss look like, anyway, with a God who was known for not telling the truth, for using tricks and magic to get his way, not to mention committing terrorism on a planetary scale?

Eventually, though, the ecstasy he brought her so effortlessly worked its magic on her and she did fall asleep.

But for nowhere near as long as she knew Loki intended her to.

 

 

He awoke slowly, very late the next morning, stretching and yawning and immediately reaching out for her to find nothing but the bedcovers.

Cold bedcovers at that, he noted with a frown.

Where could she have gone?

She wasn't in the bathroom, or on the balcony.

Had she gone down to breakfast without him?

It was then that his eyes lit on where her robe should have lain at the end of the bed, where he had put it last night after taking it off her.

But it wasn't there.

His heart sinking into his stomach, Loki checked the closet.

Empty.

Nothing at all left even to show that she had ever _been_ there.

Except the vase with the lilacs.

That was still there on her nightstand, and the sight of it hurt his heart so badly he raised a hand to shatter the thing into a million pieces.

But something in him stayed that impulse.

He had no doubt as to where she had gone.

His question was why, after the night they had shared? He knew she had experienced the ultimate bliss - multiple times every time he had reached for her, and his own in her had knocked him - a God - to his knees. She had seemed happy with him when they hadn't been exploring each other's bodies, too.

Or had he been mistaken?

He knew of only one way to get the answer he sought.

As he crossed the floor, before his hand grasped the doorknob, his uniform appeared over him, minus the helmet, and he braced himself for the trip to Midgard, where he was going to drop in on a certain woman who apparently hadn't yet come to the realization that she was _his_ , and that he didn't take kindly to her constantly running away from him.

But she would learn . . . it wouldn't be easy on her, because he could be an exacting taskmaster, but she would, eventually, learn. A wicked smile melted over his lips as he thought of just how much he would enjoy thoroughly taming her to his hand.

 

 

Just outside her little cottage in the woods near the coast, Avi was literally knee deep in weeds in a garden she'd been neglecting for far too long, grabbing the rascals up with such malice that she was sabotaging her own efforts by leaving the roots below ground, which would allow them to rear their ugly heads again. But she couldn't stop - tearing them from the ground as best she could was depressingly satisfying and a direct reflection of her inner turmoil - even though every movement she made - even the most benign ones, it seemed - produced picante twinges in a muscles she hadn't used in a very long time.

Until last night, actually.

NO. She wasn't going to think about it.

About _him_.

About how those big hands were surprisingly gentle - even when they demanded obscene things from her - how his face looked during the his own ecstasy - and hers - how, when he entered her, he had stretched her to the point of discomfort each time and how much she had enjoyed every single second of it -

And then, suddenly, somehow, a long shadow fell over her although she'd not heard anyone drive or walk up, and two big black-booted feet appeared on top of the next clump of weeds she was about to viciously uproot. Avi sat back on her heels, looking all that long way up at him as he stood there, looming over her, blocking out the sun, so big and tall that she had to lean so far back she nearly topped over backwards as she stared up at him with her mouth slightly open in awe.

When he spoke, it was as the God he was, his words booming deafeningly in her ears and reverberating in the ground beneath her legs, and echoing dramatically over the sounds of the ocean.

"Did you think that I would not come after you, my princess?"

When she didn't answer him, he crouched down in front of her, speaking much more quietly, almost wistfully, "You left something of yours behind." Besides my heart, he didn't add out loud, the vase of lilacs appearing in the hand he presented to her.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NSFW!
> 
> Mature Audiences Only, Please!!

"Loki, I -" she began, while making arrangements to get up, cleaning things around her in preparation, during which his other hand appeared instantly before her. She took it gratefully after slipping hers out of a disreputably dirty gardening glove, aware she must look a sight.

Although she couldn't judge that by him - he looked as if he wanted to devour her whole and that set her whole body tingling, images of the urgent, sensual things he'd said and done to her floating through her mind and settling _there_ , where his hands and his mouth and his cock had spent the most time possessing her, right where she didn't want them.

Loki guided her towards the house while she looked back at the mess she was leaving behind. "But I should -"

Before her eyes, a second later, everything had been put to right.

And every weed that had been threatening to choke off the rest of the garden was gone.

Great. Now who was she going to kill when she was upset?

When they entered her house - which seemed just all that much smaller with him dwarfing her within it, she headed for the kitchen, wanting - needing - something to do besides trembling pitifully under his intense scrutiny.

"Do you want some coffee?" Avi asked, her nervousness betrayed in her voice and her jerky movements as she began to make it automatically - not waiting for his answer - so that her hands - that wanted to run themselves over him wantonly, traitorously - would have something less volatile than that to do.

Loki stalked from the door where she had left him to stand directly behind her - she could hear each determined footfall and became more and more anxious the closer he got, yet she couldn’t seem to stop what she was doing and do the smart thing - run like hell.

When he got to her and she could feel the warmth radiating from his big body, he reached around her to remove the cup and saucer from her hands, putting them down onto the counter with a gentleness she knew he didn't feel. "No," he whispered huskily, raising chill bumps all over her body and tightened her nipples into painful pebbles of need, "I am afraid that coffee will not come anywhere near satisfying my desires." Another step, a smaller one, but the most nerve wracking of all, so that she could feel the entirety of him pressed up against her back, his hands finding their way to settle on the curve of her hips moving forward - slowly, as if he felt he had every right to do so, and knew she didn't have the will to stop him - and she definitely didn't have the strength to. "You, on the other hand," he said, turning her slowly around to face him, "are _exactly_ what I need and want -"

Her face bracketed by his hands, Avi had no choice but to accept his kiss - not that she didn't want to - or rather, her body wanted her to, anyway. It would have laid down naked in the garden for him if he had but asked or made any move towards wanting to have her there.

But now, here, in the house she had shared with Talm . . . 

"Please - no -" she whispered, her plea completely devoid of conviction.

Why was she so cold all of a sudden? she wondered, distracted from her supposed intent of trying to get him to stop doing what she knew he was going to do, and realizing the cause of her chill- she was standing nude in his arms. He had spirited away every stitch of her clothing.

She turned a bit - as much as his hold would allow - and began to back away from him - surprised that he let her, but not once she saw the gentle yet thoroughly depraved smile on his face, as if he was just indulging her, waiting for her to accept the inevitable. Her hands were out in front of her as if to stop him, but every step he took towards her revealed more and more of him to her, that dark head bent, looking down at her from beneath that heavy brow and lowered lids as she backed steadily away from him until her calves hit the edge of her bed and she went flailing backwards onto it.

He was only a step or two behind her, so she had no time to try to save herself. Instead she watched his approach, rapt, caught, hypnotized and mesmerized at the sight of her own destiny coming towards her, his full, heavy nearly purple erection bobbing with each movement until she could see it no longer because he had bent down to catch the slim, feminine legs that had been hanging over the edge of the bed over his shoulders instead, dragging them up with him as he stretched his long self out over her, letting her feel his full weight on her as he knew she liked and neatly trapping her there, beneath him at the same time.

Loki was about as close to mindless as he had ever been with a woman, partially with relief at having found her, apparently all right and exactly where he'd thought she would be, but most because that was what she did to him. When she was around - even more so now since they had become lovers - he was little better than a rutting stag, all he wanted to do was to lay claim to her in a way that would leave absolutely no doubt as to who owned her, his intellect having a frighteningly slim leash on the part of him that would sweep aside any of her objections in favor of achieving his goal.

But it _was_ still there, and it did its best to assert itself, even in this situation, knowing that he didn't want to treat her that way - that he could never have stood it if his primitive urges had rendered her scared of him or traumatized by him in any way.

He searched the aristocratic, upturned face. She looked . . . shocked and surprised and, around the edges a bit of fear was beginning to creep in, he could see.

But he could also see that her arousal was easily overriding all of that. Her pupils were as big as her irises. She was breathing heavily, biting her lip, and not fighting him in the least. Her hands were on his chest - he could feel them like a brand where they lay - but she wasn't pushing him away.

His hands reached for and found hers, pinning them back to the mattress. Loki knew the current tendril of control over himself was iffy at best, and seconds before he knew that thread would break, he whispered the raw, bare truth while his gaze was locked to hers.

"I _must_ have you, Avi."

It was as close as he would get to asking permission, she knew it in her heart, and no sooner had she begun to nod her consent than he became entirely unable to prevent himself from sinking into her, balls deep, in one swift, massive stroke that had her yelping a bit and writhing beneath him, even more so than she had at any time last night, mewling softly as her body was forced to accommodate his presence, whether it wanted to or not.

It might have been quick.

It might have been completely unexpected mere moments ago when she was minding her own business tending her garden.

But still - she was ready for him, his possession of her eased by her own body's innate acceptance of his dominance over it, having already, subconsciously readied itself for her to submit herself to him.

Knowing he wasn't going to last long - the fact that she hadn't denied him the right to take her - flooding hot blood through every part of his body, pooling where he swelled within her, and hastening him towards his release. But he wasn't about to get there by himself, regardless.

So he adjusted the angle at which he plunged himself into her - she was helpless to prevent him from doing so - so that each powerful surge nudged that sweet spot within her, then he caught both wrists in one of his hands and used his free one to find her other sweet spot, the one he had been delighted to become so intimately acquainted with last night.

And he received an immediate reward for his actions in her frantic, almost panicked groans, and the way she tried to recapture the use of her hands, futilely, of course.

She was right there with him, though, which had him wearing a split second self-satisfied grin before he redoubled his efforts - her useless struggles, which belied the way she arched up with his thrust heavily into her, driving him on until he could feel it happening to her, until he could hear how she lost the battle to him, how she gave him his due, spasming wildly around him and beneath him as she cried out his name in agonizingly powerful bliss.

That was what hurled him over the edge - the sound of her screaming his name in ecstasy, repeating it over and over again, each time a bit less stridently until it became a whisper as he did the same for her - bellowing her name as he emptied himself deep inside her, still maintaining his hold on her wrists, keeping her as captive to him as he felt to her, even in the quietude that descended on them.

After long, shell-shocked moments, Loki pulled the two of them more properly onto the bed, clasping her to him, face to face, holding her eyes as he confessed huskily, "I have missed you so."

Avi blushed while pointing out, "It's only been a few hours since you've seen me."

Without a second's hesitation, he breathed, lips nuzzling against her neck, " _Any_ amount of time spent away from you is too much."

She wanted to melt against him, but didn't feel she could, and so did her best to remain aloof, although it wasn't really working. Her body certainly wasn't unaffected by him - and neither was her mind.

Hell, who was she kidding? They'd only know each other for a couple of days, and he had all of her, heart and soul.

But what did that mean, exactly? 

Brushing her hair back from her face, Loki got right to the heart of the matter. "Why did you leave me, lovely?"

Avi tried to squirm out of his hold, but that wasn't going to happen. "I - I . . . I don't know what to say, Loki."

"Just tell me the truth. That's all I ask of you."

She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out, and instead her eyes began to fill with tears.

Loki kissed each of her eyelids as a single tear leaked from each them.

"Perhaps it would be easier for you to tell me your truths if I told you my own."

Her eyes, still wet with tears, opened to stare into his.

Loki took a deep breath, knowing what he was about to say would set an important course in his life - one that had to include her.

"Princess Avique, I love you."

She looked stunned and he was surprised at that. He hadn't thought he'd been that subtle in regards to his feelings about her.

"I want to be with you always, to take care of you and make love to you and spank your bottom when you need it - and when I want to."

Blushing furiously at his intimate, passionate confession, Avi opened her mouth to reply.

But, again, nothing. It was as if her emotions and concerns were too big for her to express.

Loki couldn't help but prompt her as he searched her face, desperate for any sign of what was going on in that sharp, interesting mind of hers "Dare I hope that you might feel something similar for me?"

His words were hopeful, close to plaintive, but his expression was strong and confident, as if he was trying to prepare himself for any response she might give him.

Avi bowed her head, letting the tears flow. "Yes," she whispered, desperately aware she was confessing to loving another man in the bed she had shared with her husband. "I definitely feel . . . very . . . strongly for you - about you - I think," she bit her lip and looked up at him with it shining in her eyes, "I think I love you, too, Prince Loki, but -"

This time she couldn't get any further because, suddenly, he had lifted her up and was twirling her around the tiny living room - which was really also the bedroom, and the kitchen - laughing and kissing her - an ecstatic look on his face.

His pure joy was infectious, and she had to smile and laugh with him, dizzying as it was.

Finally, he slowed them, pulling her more tightly into his arms and up into his embrace so that his were the only feet on the floor.

"I never imagined such happiness existed, and certainly not for the likes of me." His kiss this time was heartbreakingly tender and soulfully deep. "How did I manage to be so lucky as to have found you?"

Avi's fingers crept into his hair, tentatively and slowly, as if she worried she'd hurt him somehow by doing so. "I'm the lucky one, Loki," she breathed, "to have found someone as loving and romantic and attentive as you are -"

Suddenly, they were back in her bed and he was kissing her amorously, but Avi struggled and pulled away from him.

"Tell me, my darling, when would you like to be married?" he asked, and she nearly drown in the happiness she saw in his eyes.

But not quite, and he could tell that she was hesitant to answer him.

"Is there something amiss?" he asked, looking down at her with a concerned look on his face. They had just confessed their love for each other - why was she not as over the moon as he was?

Instead, she looked worried and tense.

Avi could see how concerned he was. His hold on her tightened when she would have sworn that was an impossibility, but it served to point out the disadvantages of the very real vulnerabilities he conjured in her simply by being near her. And she didn't want to be at a disadvantage while talking to him about something so serious.

"I - could we get dressed and talk about something in the living room - being like this . .. with you . . is much too distracting."

Loki took no time at all in denying her request. "No, I think not. I rather like keeping you distracted. It keeps you from thinking too much."

How was it that he knew her so well in such a short time?

"So whatever you needed to say, you will do so right here, while you are naked in my arms - the way you always should be."

Damn his ability to make her blush at the drop of a hat! Now she was even more flustered than she had been!

She sighed, her fingers playing with his hair. 

He liked it when she did that, finding that, with her, he enjoyed even the most casual contact. Any time she was touching him instantly made him feel a thousand percent better than when she was not.

After a while of her not saying anything he prodded a bit, happy not to have to stop himself from using that endearment - or any other he chose, "Yes, my love?"

Her eyes, which had been focused on his chest, darted up to his, then down again. "Loki, I believe that I _do_ love you . . ."

"But?" he supplied, trying to prepare himself for the worst and failing miserably.

"But I - I know you're going to laugh at me and think I'm ridiculous for this, but I have to be _sure_. I hope you can understand. I wasn't expecting this, and it's all happened so fast . . . I want us to get to know each other better, to make sure that this is right for us."

"I love you and you love me - how could that not be right?" His tone was carefully neutral, not at all critical, just questioning.

Avi sighed. "I know I'm not going to say this well, but I'm going to tell you the truth about how I feel. . . I knew Talm almost all my life - I knew that he wouldn't eat mushrooms and that he hated to drive or ride places and that his favorite number was three _before_ we got married. I know almost nothing of you beyond that you used to feed the birds at the aviary, that you have a bad relationship with your parents and, most disturbingly, that a couple of the things you're known for are being the God of Mischief and Lies, and trying to take over the planet. Frankly, none of that is much of a recommendation for the success of a long term relationship."

Loki swallowed hard, and, was that a blush she saw creeping over his face?

When he responded, he sounded as serious as she did. "All of those things are true. What do you want to know about me? I will gladly tell you anything. You are my love, and I have been and I will always be completely honest with you."

She sighed, and he knew he wasn't going to get off that easily. "I - I want us to date for a while - to get to know each other better before we go making wedding plans. What if this is . . . I don't know . . . some kind of fluke between us -"

His hand travelled to cover her bottom, pressing her against that part of him that was - again, still, always around her - the most rock hard and rolling his hips towards her as he did so. "I can only speak for myself, my princess, but this is no fluke to me. And I have never been more sure of anything in my life."

Avi hung her head. "I'm sorry, Loki. I wish I could say the same things back to you, but I won't lie to you, either. I'm at a different place in my life, and I - I definitely can't commit to marrying you until we've spent more than a few days together." She caught his eye. "Platonically."

He looked comically horrified at that idea, but she wasn't laughing.

"I just _can't_. The sex is mind-blowingly amazing, but it will cloud my - our - judgment about each other." He could see her biting her lip in hesitation. "But you're . . . you're a God. And although it will make me miserable, I'll completely understand if you don't want to do that. I know it's asking a lot of you." In her embarrassment and awkwardness, some of her insecurities about him pushed to the forefront and spilled out of her mouth. "I'm sure you have a long queue of women on Asgard - and anywhere else you go - who are only too willing to take my place and not be so . . . obstructionist about it."

Loki lifted her chin until their eyes met, but hers skittered away from his. "Look at me," he growled, and they immediately returned. "Despite what you may have heard about me, I do _not_ have hoards of women following me around nor do I have anyone lined up to replace you. I want you and only you, and a large part of that is wanting - needing - you to be happy.

"I can understand your concerns about me. And you're right, we do not know each other that well, but if you have a question about me or a problem with me, I want you to talk to me about it." 

Dear God, the sternness he seemed to be able to conjure at will was going to be the death of her- she could already feel her honey gathering just at that no-nonsense tone of voice!

"We might not have known each other that long, but you have already displayed a distressing tendency to run from me rather than staying and dealing with whatever the issue is, which I fully intend to correct quite firmly in a few minutes." Loki reached around her to squeeze a bottom cheek until she squealed.

He paused for a moment, then said, "However, I agree that it would be good for us to get to know each other a bit better. And I will - with severe reluctance - give you my promise that I will honor your misguided requirement that I - and I cannot believe I am saying this - refrain from having you - for a _short_ time," he added. "However, your submission to me is a very real -"

He sought her eyes questioningly and Avi blushed brightly while nodding.

" - entirely separate matter and will remain unaffected by this restriction. And, as I believe that your moratorium on the pleasure we find in each other's bodies is wrong, I will do my best to convince you to revoke it."

Surprised and amazed that he had actually agreed, Avi nodded warily, not liking the calculating look on his face.

He may have agreed to what he obviously considered to be her silly restriction, but he wasn't going to make it easy for her to adhere to it, in other words.

Then he uttered words she dreaded, but wasn't at all surprised to hear.

"And in the vein of your submission to me being real, I intend to take this moment to address that distressing habit you've developed."

Suddenly, he wasn't lying on the bed with her safe in his warm, loving arms.

Instead, he was standing next to it, in full armor, and looking down at her with a terribly stern expression that made her all that much more aware of her naked vulnerability.

She began to try to inch away from him, but stopped cold at his strict words.

"Halt immediately. This is an example of exactly what I mean. You have a very naughty tendency to run away from me, little girl, and I intend to put it to an end - _your_ end - here and now."


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NSFW!
> 
> Mature Audiences Only, Please!!

Avi looked all that way up at him, then quickly away, biting her lip. She _had_ to get up and run, regardless of his words. She had a pretty good idea where she was going to end up, and visions of her kicking and screaming helplessly while he held her in place over his lap and spanked her with that enormous hand of his danced in her head, making her feet just that much itchier.

Not that she had any real illusions that she'd actually manage to escape him, but she had to try, didn't she?

He must've known what she was thinking, but he didn't grab at her, he didn't drag her across the bed to him. He simply stood there with his hand outstretched to her, not imperiously, not even demandingly, but with definite expectation as he watched her avidly.

She almost wished he _had_ grabbed or dragged her, giving her no choice in whether or not she obeyed him. This was infinitely worse, because he was requiring her to participate - to accept - her own submission to him in this.

Avi stared at his hand for a long moment, wondering when he'd become impatient with her and just withdraw it and leave, but he didn't. There was no prodding her or prompting her in any way, nor did he show any signs that he was tapping his foot while he waited for her to make her choice.

Instead, he stood there, looking down at her with a soft, loving expression that silently coaxed her into doing what she knew she didn't really want to, on a lot of levels.

Seconds later, her small hand found its way into his, tentatively, like a wild bird coming to a feeder for the first time.

Again, he made no sudden movements, he didn't grasp at her hand or immediately squeeze it as if he thought she'd fly away again. 

And his face - she'd never seen such a beautiful smile on anyone, anywhere, ever. He looked as if he'd just received a gift of immeasurable value.

And that was exactly what Loki was feeling at that moment, because he had.

He was quite fully aware of how big a step this was for her, and he didn't take it lightly, but rather with her in the forefront of his mind, as she had been since the first moment he'd met her. He knew this was very new to her, this submission thing, and that the disciplinary aspect would be hard for her to accept, which was perfectly understandable.

But it would be an important component of their lives because he could feel that it was something that aroused her, as it certainly did for him, but he also got the feeling that it was something she _needed_ from him, even if she was reluctant to acknowledge that quite yet. He knew that she was going to get something more out of it than just the titillation. He wanted her to feel taken care of, watched over - tended to.

His fingers did, eventually, slowly - giving her every chance to change her mind - close around hers, not harshly but with heartbreaking tenderness, as he helped her off the bed to stand before him.

He couldn't resist taking a step towards her, both his hands gently becoming buried in her hair, tipping her face up to him so that he could bestow the softest, most loving kiss she'd ever received.

Then he took that step back, leaving a finger beneath her chin as he met her eyes, his other hand returning to claim hers again. His voice was quiet and low, with just the right tinge of scolding that had her immediately regretting any impulse she'd ever had to take so much as a step away from him, ever.

"I'm sorry to have to do this, my love, but running away from me is a very naughty thing to do. I can't extend my protection to you - and I would gladly, without so much as a thought, do so, even if it cost me my life - if I do not know where you are, and you came a rather long distance this last time to get away from me. That is not how I want us to deal with our problems, and I will not tolerate such behavior from you. If I do something you are not happy with, I expect you to tell me so that we can discuss it." His voice deepened to the point that she began to shiver a bit at his tone. "I do not expect to awaken from the most profound night of lovemaking I have ever experienced in my life to find that I have been abandoned by the object of my affections. Am I making myself very clear, my Avi?"

"Y - Yes," she barely got out, swallowing hard as she stared up at him. That sounded unfinished to her ear, so she added tentatively, "S-sir."

His austere expression softened a bit at that, although not much. Letting go of her hand - leaving it and her feeling somewhat bereft, he sat down on the edge of the bed, and now _he_ was looking up at _her_.

"Place yourself over my lap, please."

She wanted to stomp her foot and say "NO!"

She wanted to run - not a good idea.

She wanted to do anything _but_ what he was demanding - quietly, implacably - of her.

But there was also a large part of her - larger than she might have guessed - that _wanted_ to do exactly what he asked of her, and it was - luckily for her - that part of her that prevailed in the end.

Again, though, he didn't rush her in the least, allowing her to work out her own path to submitting to him, and thus she didn't see how pleased he looked when she did, finally, drape herself - becoming inherently much more exposed and helpless in doing so - over his strong thighs.

Loki had to take a breath for a moment, thanking the leather apron of his armor for covering the fact that he was so engorged that a sigh from her was going to set him off. 

But it was more than that.

He didn't want to make a mistake during this first, formal punishment. He would never, ever truly hurt her, but he also didn't want her to expect that her punishments would be cursory. It had to mean something to the both of them - an extension of his protection of and love for her - and thus he was going to have to make an impression on her, _especially_ this first time.

And he would not be able to soothe her the intimate, sensual way he might usually choose because of what he'd just agreed they wouldn’t do for a while.

Although he chafed at her restriction, he understood it, too, though, and he could hardly blame her for her hesitation. He would never be the poster boy for the perfect partner in a long term relationship. In his own way, he came into this relationship with at least as much baggage as she did, and he would do his best to give her the time she needed - as he just had - to work her way through her doubts and concerns and into his arms.

But now she was lying there, looking devastatingly lovely with her upturned peaches and cream bottom, and he was hard pressed to remember that this was discipline since his hands desperately wanted to cup those lovely cheeks, squeezing and massaging them, although he forced himself to it - for her.

Loki placed his big right hand on her bottom, somehow managing not to indulge himself, noting that it covered almost all of it. That was inherently going to make her spankings quite unpleasant, because, by just the second or third swat, he would have covered every bit of her, and thus he would, from that point on, be spanking areas that were already stinging, compounding her discomfort exponentially with each smack.

But he couldn't allow that to deter him.

"Tell me, my love, why do you find yourself in this position?" he asked, firmly gathering her wrists with his other hand to hold them at the small of her back, where they wouldn't be allowed to interfere with her being disciplined, as he knew they would very quickly want to.

She suddenly turned herself one way, then the other, quite violently, trying to either get off the lap she'd just placed herself over or reclaim the use of her arms, but neither was going to happen, and he simply let her exhaust herself trying.

"Avi, you are already going to be punished for something quite serious. Do you need me to give you another spanking - beforehand - for not responding to me when I ask you a question?" he warned.

Avi was no fool. She was answering him vehemently before he finished his query. "RUN! I ran from you." He hadn't even touched her and she was shaking and panting. "I'm sorry."

Loki was quite pleased at that little apology. "I am quite sure you are, my love, but you about to be more so."

He had decided to just do it - aware that she was a bit scared, but that wasn't at all unexpected. And the cure for that- for knowing that although he'd blister her behind, she would still - and always - be safe with him - was to show her that she was.

And that he did.

In spades.

No amount of kicking, writhing, bucking, twisting or turning budged her so much as an inch, and yet his hold on her still somehow remained very gentle, firm but not uncomfortable. The only part of her that hurt was where his other huge hand connected with her cringing behind, and it did so until she was sobbing, and then for a while afterwards, leaving her weeping piteously, not even bothering to fight him anymore, her flesh fairly scorched, stinging and burning relentlessly.

As soon as he decided to stop, he gathered her into his arms and began to rock her, pressing his lips to the top of her head, murmuring soothing nothings and brushing her tear-soaked hair away from her face, rubbing her back and holding her very, very tightly.

He was gratified to realize that she hadn't hesitated to cling to him as she wept, purely, unconsciously, and it humbled him. Instead of scrambling away from him, or sending him away from her, instead of shouting vitriol at him, she turned to him for the comfort he was only too happy to provide, her small fingers trying to crumple the leather of his uniform as she tucked her forehead against his neck and wept.

The profundity of it floored him like nothing else ever had - she loved him. She had gifted him with her body. And she had - on short acquaintance - allowed him to discipline her.

He was quite certain his heart was going to burst.

Instead, he cradled her against him until she fell asleep in his arms.

 

 

 

Although Avi was happy that he hadn't done what she'd frankly expected him to do and stormed out to leave her high and dry at her outrageous demand, she worried that his declaration about trying to convince her otherwise regarding her demand that they refrain from sex was going to make her constantly have to fight him off. But it didn't turn out that way at all. She should have realized that he would never be so crass; that his approach would - almost - always be more suave and subtle than that.

To her surprise and delight, he seemed to take to the Midgardian custom of dating much more readily than she ever could have imagined. He took her out every Friday and Saturday night, and usually one other night during the week. He always arrived on her doorstep with a small present of some sort for her - flowers, delicacies from Asgard he knew - through his mother - that she liked - and one time a book of erotic love poetry that he then proceeded to curl up on her couch - with her in his arms - and read to her until she had to stop him because she had to get up - get away from him -in self-defense.

Not that she told him that that was what she was doing, of course.

He hadn't been kidding when he said he was going to try to get her to change her mind about them making love, and him reading those words - even though they were someone else's - had her body throbbing atrociously, and him grinning down at her unrepentantly.

They went to museums, to movies, to restaurants. He was, she had to admit, the consummate boyfriend - charming, thoughtful and attentive. And at the same time, he was - she realized after they'd gone out in public together a few times - always on alert, too. They had decided not to try to hide who he was. Of course, he wasn't in armor when they went out, but rather always a very expensive, exquisitely tailored suits that emphasized every bit of his masculinity in ways Avi wished they didn't.

Most people ignored them - either not recognizing him or not caring if they did. She was surprised, however, at two particular things - the brazenness of some of the women, who would come up to him _while she was standing right there_ , with his arm - as always - draped possessively around her waist, and proposition him in the filthiest of language, rubbing lewdly up against him as if they thought he was instantly going to forsake her and take them right then and there in the middle of the movie theatre lobby or on the sidewalk of a busy street!

That happened more than once. The first time, she had been too stunned to react, and Loki had dealt with the situation by magicking them away. The second time, though, she experienced the first flash of jealousy she'd ever felt in her life, and was unable to control her impulse to reached around him, intending to yank the red headed bitch's hair out of her head by the roots. But he smiled at her, putting his hand on hers long before it got to the other woman and guiding it back to her side, saying quietly but emphatically, "No."

But she had already brought her hand up again before he transported them away again, and for which she paid dearly, because - although he told her that he was quite flattered that she was willing to get into a physical altercation over him, she had clearly intended to disobey him and go after the woman again even after he'd told her not to.

She wouldn't be doing _that_ again any time soon, as much as it was going to kill her to have to watch other women drool all over him. 

But she had to acknowledge that his head had never been turned by any of them - and every one of them had been much prettier than she was. His focus was always entirely on her - she never once saw his eyes wander to any other woman. He was completely fixated on her at all times, trying to anticipate what she might like, taking care of her in small ways as well as bigger ones, and always trying to make things as easy for her as he could.

The other incident that happened was more upsetting to her, but made her heart melt at the same time.

It wasn't just women who approached Loki the relatively few times anyone had dared to.

Sometimes it was men - usually more than one of them. They knew who and what he was - or they thought they did - but apparently couldn't come to the conclusion that it wouldn't really matter how many men they were - that he could kill the lot of them with devastating ease, if he so chose.

But, ever vigilant in regards to her and her safety, as soon as he realized that a gang of men was headed for them, he would push her behind him, saying, "Stay there. If I think you're in any danger at all, I will send you home and I will be there as soon as I have dealt with these gentlemen." His tone indicated that that was the last thing he thought they were, especially since, the closer they got, the more they tended to direct their insults not at him, but at _her_ for being with him.

The first time it happened, the moment the first insult reached his ears - something about her being a whore for being anywhere near him - he immediately turned his back on them - a calculated move to show just how completely unafraid he was at their approach - kissed her with infinite gentleness as he cupped her cheeks and said, "I do not want you to see this, and I need to know that you're safe at home, little one."

The next thing she knew, that was exactly where she was, stomping her foot in frustration at his overprotective instincts, especially when he finally appeared, not a hair out of place, saying blithely, "The thugs that said those horrible things about you send their heartfelt apologies through me. I do not think any of them will be doing much talking for a while."

Avi bit her lip. "You didn't . . . kill them, did you?"

He gave her a small, somewhat amused smile. "Would that make you happy, my bloodthirsty little love?"

"No, of course not. I was just wondering if I was going to need to come up with bail money."

She let him - yeah, right, let him - gather her to him. "I assure you that they were all alive when I left them - if quite a bit worse for the wear. I would have brought them to you to apologize in person, but I do not want them anywhere near our house, nor did I want you anywhere near them."

Although she knew that she shouldn't feel this way - that she should be taking him to task for what he'd done - she didn't - because it gave her libido a huge goose - not that it needed it. And made her feel even more protected and cosseted than she already did, if that was even possible.

And despite his reputation as being psychotic, he didn't act that way unless he was provoked. In fact, if they had contained their comments to disparaging him, he would have ignored them. Their mistake had been in attacking her in any way, shape or form. Except for those times, he remained entirely peaceful; he didn't rampage through town; he didn't accost people in the streets. But, at the same time, she never doubted that he would do whatever he deemed necessary to keep her safe, up to and including sacrificing his own _life_ to do so.

Incidents like that were few and far between, granted. Mostly, they were left alone to swim on her private beach, in a lake at the house of a friend of hers, and, once, at a secluded private grotto he showed her on Asgard, where he swam nude, his unflagging need of her blatantly obvious, while she refused to remove her fairly modest - by Midgardian standards - lacey pink bikini, no matter how he tried to entice her to do so.

Sometimes, though, they stayed home and she cooked for them and they spent a weekend in, doing marathons of TV programs Loki had never seen - he particularly favored crime dramas, such as _The Sopranos_ and _Breaking Bad_ , and out and out detested sit-coms of any kind.

And, to her surprise, at first, he even actually adhered scrupulously to the letter of her law and, beyond a few old world courtesies - helping her in and out of cars, opening doors for her and always carrying heavy things - and scolding her if she didn't wait for him to do so - he didn't touch her besides holding her hand and kissing her - rather chastely - when he arrived and when he left, as if he was testing her resolve. 

When he'd had time to think about what she'd asked of him - of them - Loki had quickly come to understand her concerns, even those that had caused her to restrict them unnecessarily. He was over a thousand years old - waiting a few months for her to be certain would be a piece of cake.

But as time wore on and she didn't relent, it became rapidly less so, he was surprised to realize. His need for her grew exponentially every day, and thus he felt compelled to try another approach entirely and, instead, began to touch her at every given opportunity.

And that was an infinitely worse challenge to her resolve than his hands off demeanor had been, although even in his ardor, he was still the epitome of a gentleman.

Usually.

Through this all, he never once relented about the idea of disciplining her when she did something he was unhappy about, and the fact that the both of them knew that they were not going to have sex - and the fact that they hadn't had it in a while - heightened those encounters to the point where - although he blistered her behind every time - finding that he loved to use her own hairbrush on her, and thus it began to follow her wherever they went, kind of like the vase of lilacs that never seemed to fade or need watering, appearing in both her room in the palace as well as its home in her headboard for easy access - she discovered something she never expected, even through all of the tears and out and out agony his very strict corrections evoked.

She quickly began to come awfully close to orgasming whenever he punished her, although he never touched her in a purely sexual way while doing so and he certainly didn't take it easy on her in the least. But Loki understood the basics of her attraction to it very well - much better than she did - and he, each time, he did his best to amplify her more prurient reactions as much as he could without being to overt about it.

In the vein of the first time he'd formally spanked her, he made certain that most of her punishments were very ritualistic - although some were, by necessity spur of the moment. He would have her stand in front of him and would remove her clothing himself, pushing her jeans and panties or pantyhose and underwear down to her ankles but not off - that would happen while she was thrashing them wildly, trying frantically to get away from the way he was setting fire to her flesh, but of course she was never able to - then requiring that she turn and face him to state what she had done wrong, her hands clasped primly behind her back and meeting his eyes as she did so.

It always surprised her how soft and loving his were, even if she knew he was really not happy with her about something she'd done, they were as much of a direct reflection of his love for her as was the prominent bulge she knew would be poking at her the entire time she was over his lap. She'd noticed it every time and wasn't able to think of anything else at first, until he began to layer swat after swat on her vulnerable behind, and sometimes, if she had been particularly naughty, down the backs of her thighs, too.

And, despite the searing and throbbing that seemed to take days to even begin to recede, and the tears that dripped from her eyes onto the floor or the couch or the edge of the bed or the seat of the dining room chair she was bent over as he was punishing her, she knew she was dripping at least as much elsewhere on her person.

And the aftercare! He would always bundle her up in his big arms, wrapping them tightly around her and rocking them both, letting her cry it out and always reassuring her in that soft, almost hypnotic voice of his, no matter how upset he had been about whatever she had done - although never angry at her, but rather about her behavior - which was almost always something detrimental to herself in some way - skipping meals or putting herself into any kind of a potentially dangerous situation - had resulted in the worst punishments so far - that it was over and done and forgotten, that he adored her and that she was loved, as well as how sorry he was that he had to spank her, but that he did it for her, because he loved her so much.

It was after one of those times, when he had punished her more harshly than most and had then spent even more time holding and cuddling and soothing her that she noticed that his hips were thrusting gently, rhythmically against her, where she lay full length stretched out atop him - not that she was able to cover much of him really, considering the drastic difference in their heights - as if he was entirely unaware that he was doing it.

Avi could feel just how hard and swollen he was - he seemed even bigger than she remembered, throbbing and surging beneath a hand that was suddenly molded to him there, of its own volition, cupping and stroking him slowly over his pants.

She'd never heard him issue such an anguished cry, his hand reaching down to wrench hers from him almost violently, the grip on her wrist somewhat painful, a low growl escaping his lips before he could stop it, sending a fear laced shiver up her spine.

"As you have prohibited us from experiencing the natural end to your tender ministrations, I would ask that you refrain from performing them or I am quite likely to besmirch my trousers in the next few seconds."

The strain on his will - on his very passionate temperament - rang through his tone and Avi was instantly saddened and concerned at how unaware she had been of how much _he_ had been struggling under her edict.

And she decided to do something about it.

"Let go of my hand, please," she asked softly, and he gave her a questioning look, then - with severe reluctance, did as she asked.

Avi immediately leaned down to kiss him, letting every frustrated desire she owned to the forefront, leaving the both of them panting breathlessly as she held those dark green eyes and began to crawl down his body, dragging all of the most interesting parts of herself against him quite deliberately, hearing his gasp as she did so, opening his shirt and kissing her way down his chest to his belly button, settling there for a moment, leaving his enormous cock buried between her still clothed breasts, then beginning to move as she heard him start to growl again deep in his throat.

When her mouth was level with that obscenely prominent bulge, she leaned down and did her best to seal her mouth over it, breathing hot air into the fabric that strained from trying to contain him.

Then, as she kept her mouth there, her hands found his belt - and long fingers encircled her wrist just as she began to unbuckle it.

"Do not start this if you are not willing to finish it, Avi, I am warning you."

Her hands continued to work the buckle, her eyes glued to his, seeing them go round with surprise when she returned, "And who says I'm not willing to finish it? I don't have a lot of experience - well, any experience doing this, because Talm didn't want me to for some reason. But I want you to teach me, please. I want to pleasure you with my mouth like you did for me our first night together."

There was a muscle ticcing in his jaw that she had come to learn was not usually a good sign - it usually meant she was about to find herself over his knee within the next few seconds.

His hesitation surprised her until he asked in a husky tone she barely recognized as his, "Does this mean that I am no longer to be held to the promise I made you about the abstinence you have imposed on us?"

She wasn't very happy about the way he put it, but she supposed she shouldn't complain since he was abiding by it - however grudgingly.

"No," Avi answered quietly. "It means that I would like you to show me how to use my mouth to make you scream."

Considering the hungry look that her words conjured, Avi wasn't at all sure that she shouldn't have retracted her offer immediately.

But then he positioned himself a bit lower on the couch, body more fully extended, placing his hands over hers. "Then feel free to continue, my love."

And she did so quite eagerly, pulling his pants and underwear down until he popped out and practically into her mouth, every glorious inch of him ready and raring to go, the tip already weeping in blatant need of her.

"I do not think there is a _wrong_ way for you to do this - especially since it has been so long," he rasped. "Just be careful of your teeth, and please do not judge how short this is going to be as normal. I think all you will really need to do - after having asked me to show you how to do it for me so sweetly - is to breathe on me and I will come undone for you."

"You're very beautiful, Loki," she complimented, and she meant every word. Every bit of him - especially here - was the essence of masculinity - proud and strong and powerful.

She was glad to realize the just the sight of him like that made her mouth water.

"This is what happens to me any time I know you are around. When I smell the scent of lilacs now, I get hard. I can not think of anything but you, wanting to be inside you, wanting to feel your warm wetness around me -"

His speech was cut short when she did just that, covering her teeth with her lips and sinking down on him - taking every inch until she almost gagged, then slowly rising back up the impressive length of him.

And he shuddered the entire time. Loki, Prince of Asgard, God of Mischief and Lies, was trembling beneath her. Avi felt more powerful than she ever had in her life. _She_ was doing this to him! _She_ was making him feel this way!

"That- is - perfect," he complimented raggedly. "Try to establish a rhythm - take as much of me as you can, then up again. Suction is good, using your tongue while you do so is even better, especially around and under the head. You can use your hand right below your mouth as an almost extension - ahhhhhhhh!" She was a fast enough learner that he couldn't get anything more out beyond incoherent expressions of pure bliss for long moments at a time.

He was a wonderful teacher, and she knew he was doing his best to hold himself back so that he could show her as fully as possible what he enjoyed, his hand cupping the back of her head gently as he guided her to the rhythm he wanted.

"You are already much too good at this, my Princess. I am not going to be able to control myself much longer . . . "

"Excellent," she said with a wicked smile, patterned after the ones he often gave her.

"You will have to -" he began, and then she began to cup his balls, squeezing them gently with her other hand and every car in his train of thought derailed then and there.

Seconds later, his grip tightened and he threw back his head, drawing a swift, toes deep breath that he expelled on a scream that shook the walls of her house around them as she drank down every drop he produced, licking him daintily clean as the breath still bellowed out of him.

When she would have gotten up to get him something - although she really wasn't sure what was appropriate - he caught her hand and tugged her back down to lie atop him again, then turned them both so that they were lying on their sides, facing each other.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NSFW!!
> 
> Mature Audiences Only, please!!

After taking a few quiet moments to recover more fully, he said, "Thank you very much for that - it was a wonderful, generous surprise - and all the more poignant since you had just been paddled - and very skillful for a beginner, too, I might add."

Avi blushed, not looking at him. "I - I don't think I fully realized just how much my choice would affect you. You were . . . thrusting against me a bit and I don't think you even realized you were doing it, and I kind of had a thought that you were probably pretty close to fed up with me by now, so I wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten about how explosive it is between us."

He tipped her face up to his. "Oh, that it is, as you could tell," he murmured, then bent to whisper in her ear, "But what of you, lovely one? Do you not ache for me?"

Squirming at his choice of words and that low, thrilling tone, she tried to demure, but he wouldn't allow it.

"I believe I shall have to discover the truth of the matter for myself." While his fingers along her jaw forced her to look up at him, his other hand travelled down her body - excruciatingly slowly - deliberately gliding over stiff peaked breasts that swelled and heaved beneath his touch, offering themselves silently to him, but he didn't linger there, fingertips running over too prominent ribs, to a slim waist and gently rounded hips, following the crease where thigh met lower tummy to its natural juncture.

Until her fingers closed around his wrist, in an ill-fated attempt to stop him as she tried to wiggle her hips away from him at the same time - not that she had anywhere to go - her back was already up against the back of the couch.

Although he certainly didn't have to on account of what she was doing, Loki stopped and remained deadly still. "Where should your hands be, my Avi?" came his low purr, but there was an inherent threat in his voice that had her breathing huffing agitatedly out of her mouth as she reluctantly removed the hand that had foolishly tried to stay his advance, and it slowly joined its companion, fingers laced at the small of her back, so that she was forced to arch herself into him rather than away from him, as if presenting herself for his delectation.

She knew from previous experience that, if she moved her hands - no matter what he decided to do to her - she would be made to regret it.

It was terribly hard to obey that rule, and she had a feeling that that was by design.

Instead of beginning where he'd stopped to reprimand her, a long, elegant finger began to draw a line down her body, very gently gliding over her face, down her nose, over lips that pooched out to kiss it, down over her chin and the graceful line of her neck to her collarbone, pressing more firmly as it went, finding the warm valley between her breasts and relieving her of her clothing magically as it descended, down over her flat tummy to slow just below her navel, her body already completely nude for him, as it continued to travel until it met its goal - slipping all the way up inside her as she whimpered and mewled and panted.

His dark head bent to capture a neglected nipple, suckling strongly. "Ahhhhh. Despite the thrashing I gave you - or more accurately because of it -" Avi keened in protest, but they both knew he spoke the truth, "you do ache for me, don't you, my darling Avi?"

Beyond embarrassment at this point, even beyond caring what he thought about her - although she had a pretty good idea that he was quite happy with his discovery - she moaned breathily, "Every second of every minute of every hour of every day."

His own breath hissed in through his teeth at her potent confession, and that finger was joined by a second one that zeroed immediately in on the most tender spot within her and began to concentration all of their attention on it, just as his other hand came down to drape her leg over his hip, then find its way into her sopping wet crease to pat her clit - sometimes gently, sometimes less so, with the occasional long, slow rub thrown in, just to drive her even crazier than he already was.

She couldn't help it- imagining how obscene she must've looked - but Avi couldn't help the way her hips rolled herself against him, seeking greater contact - a firmer touch, a quicker path to her own salvation.

But she wasn't in control, and he reminded her of that fact by forcing her to go slowly, sometimes quieting both of his hands and merely suckling at those delicious nipples, sometimes literally kissing the breath out of her, sometimes nuzzling her neck as his hands between her legs drove her absolutely crazy with need.

Finally, when she was bathed in sweat, living and dying by the way he moved his fingers within and without her, and begging him not so prettily to end the torment, he relented.

"Whose are you, Avi?" he asked, fingers frigging and fucking her viciously at the same time.

Through tormented moans and unrelenting keening, she answered, softly because she just didn't have the breath to say it any louder, "Yours, Loki. Ah - uh . . . ummmmm . . . I am _yoursssssssssssss_ \- OOHHHHHH -"

When she awoke moments later, she was beneath him, with a cold cloth on her head and he was hovering over her, looking anxious and worried. "Avi, my love, come back to me."

She opened her eyes, confused. "What happened?"

Smiling, but still looking worried, he stroked her cheek. "You fainted, and, although I think it robbed me of centuries of my life in fear for you, now that I know you are fine, I am going to take it as the ultimate compliment and be absolutely insufferable because of it."

"That's your excuse now, but what's been your excuse for being insufferable so far?" she teased, finding herself hauled up into his arms for her efforts.

"Someone whose bottom is as sore as yours looks ought not make smart remarks about the man who made it that way."

Avi snorted. "You would never punish me for something frivolous like that."

Loki found his heart swelling on several counts - her over the top, terrifying but very ego boosting reaction to his touch, and the fact that - although he certainly enjoyed spanking her any time - she truly understood that punishing her wasn't something he would ever do casually or vengefully.

He might occasionally spank her for his own prurient interests, but not over something trivial. She was his. He didn't need to make up reasons to smack her bottom.

"By the way," he whispered as he pulled her into his arms, "Although I realize that none of this means that the usual constraints are not in place, that this was an aberration, I assert that - since you loved me so beautifully with your mouth - you still owe me my mouth on your gorgeous little quim. And I will collect what is due to me in my own time."

That rough threat was practically enough to get her there again, all on its own.

In fact, though, she had practically forgotten about what he'd said by the time he decided the time was right for her to make good on the debt, which Avi was sure that that was exactly what he intended, so that it was a surprise and not something she was anticipating when it happened.

It was a normal weeknight - she hadn't seen him since Sunday, and he wasn't due to come see her until Thursday this week, so she wasn't expecting him at all. She was coming out of the bathroom after a shower, wearing just a big voluminous t-shirt and nothing else, hair long and wet, and not paying much attention to where she was going as she walked, bent over, doing her best to try to towel the thick tresses dry.

But, all of sudden, she collided with a solid wall of flesh - Loki, in full metal and leather regalia, minus the horns.

He looked at her intently, saying nothing, and took a step forward, which was, essentially, into her.

Avi wanted to turn and run just from that look but didn't, finding herself immediately backed back into the steamy bathroom, her t-shirt fading from her body as if it had never been. She was completely unprepared for him to bend and pick her up, lifting her high, her legs having parted naturally to go around his waist, but he didn't stop there as he deliberately hung them much higher, over his powerful shoulders, instead, splaying them quite wide, with his mouth right exactly where he most wanted it to be.

"I am here to collect your debt to me, woman," he growled.

"Loki - no!" 

Why she said something like that was a complete waste of breath she would never know, except that she found protesting - and then having him ignore or overcome those protests - to be incredibly hot.

One hand came up to cup her neck, holding it tight to the wall. The other teased and tortured a breast, and when one of her hands tried to interfere, he looked up at her, then at the ceiling, which was quite near to her head, then went back to the task at hand, saying just before his mouth descended on her again, "Put your fingertips on the ceiling and if you remove them, even for a second, I will flay your bottom raw with a leather strap, then put you right back here again."

Rendered helpless by edict rather than magic, easily held feet rather than just inches off the floor and splayed for his lewd attentions, she was completely at his mercy.

And it occurred to her that he might well not possess much, if any, in this mood.

It was the second time he had touched her since she had declared that they should not do that - and it had the same result as the last time.

She had not forgotten how his mouth felt on her in the least- she spent entirely too much time thinking about just that, especially when she was without him. But her memory and the stark reality were truly two entirely different things.

What he did to her was absolutely criminal - robbing her of any semblance of intelligence, reducing her to a writhing, wailing wreck that lived for him to touch her in any manner at all - and he never failed to choose the most devastatingly sensual of ways to do so, fingers stuffed inside her three abreast, stretching her just this side of a painfully as his mouth had its way with her, driving her relentlessly to a Midgard-shattering completion that left her slumped in his arms.

At least Loki didn't panic quite as much this time when she fainted as he had the first time, when his heart had been in his throat until she opened her eyes and came back to him. This time, he brought the both of them to her bed and set about waking her with very gentle kisses, until he knew exactly when she regained consciousness because she then began to kiss him back.

"Are you all right, my love?" he asked, deep concern for her in every word, touching her everywhere as if he had to prove it to himself, regardless of what she said.

Avi took a deep breath on a big smile. "I am . . . well beyond just 'all right', Loki. You - well, I don't know quite how to say what you do to me, what you give to me when you touch me - even innocently. You always make me feel so loved and special and as if I am always worthy of your complete attention, when I know you must have a thousand different things to do other than seeing to me."

Loki brought the backs of her hands to his lips, kissing them reverently, but his eyes on her as he vowed, "Nothing in my life has ever been or ever will be as important to me as you are, I assure you, my love."

Avi pressed her face into his chest, entirely unable to stem the tears his words evoked in her. Understanding innately, Loki kissed her tears away as she tried - brokenly - to convey to him that she felt the very same way about him, and he thought his heart might burst from sheer happiness.

 

 

Despite the fact that they had - infrequently - been intimate in other ways, Avi had yet to lift the moratorium on sex, and she could see that it was beginning to wear on Loki, who she had to admit had been much more patient with her than she had expected him to be.

But it all came to a head one evening when they were on her big beat up old couch. They had begun kissing almost absently, but it had been too long for them to do that without it blossoming into something else entirely very quickly, and she ended up beneath him, with Loki between her legs, his insistent - and persistent - erection pressing against her womanhood. His eyes were hooded, his jaw set, every muscle tense and ready.

In fact, Loki had already admitted to himself that he was seconds from simply taking her, although that was not what he really wanted to do, intellectually, anyway. He wanted to respect her wishes, but this had gone on much longer than he had expected it to and he wasn't sure how much longer he could endure the agony of being so close to her but not being able to indulge himself in her.

He _had_ to have her!

"Release me. Release me from my promise, Avi," he commanded roughly, kissing her passionately, nuzzling and biting at her neck when he wasn't, his hands running over her roughly, pinching here, pulling there, igniting fires he hoped would consume her as fully as he felt he was being consumed by need of her.

Avi opened her mouth to do so, but found she couldn't. It wasn't that she didn't want to; she'd been thinking she would any time now - but in the face of his intensity, she just couldn't get the words out. It was one of the few times since she'd been with him that he had truly frightened her. This was a Loki she hadn't dealt with often - if at all - one who was teetering on the edge of complete loss of control. 

What would happen if he took her when he was like this?

Her mind answered immediately what she truly believed - that she was never safer than when she was with him.

But the primitive, self-preservation fight or flight response had been tripped in her body, and she couldn't seem to get past it, so she found herself unable to say what she wanted to.

" _RELEASE ME_!" he yelled down at her, and when she said nothing - and he saw those soft eyes begin to fill with tears and he realized his behavior was scaring her - rather than take her against her will, he vanished instead on a thoroughly anguished cry of sheer frustration that echoed in the tiny room - and in her head - for long after he was gone.

Avi felt alone and bereft at his sudden disappearance. Had she teased the tiger one too many times? Would she ever see him again after this?

She didn't see him for more than a few days - he missed their usual date night with no word or explanation - and, when it had gotten to be a week since she'd seen him with no contact whatsoever - which was unprecedented since they'd met - she contacted Frigga and asked her to bring her to Asgard so that she could see him.

When her Aunt met her, she was abuzz with concern. "I don't know what happened between the two of you, Avi, but I'm so glad you got in touch with me. I haven't wanted to interfere with things between you two, but he's been like a madman - fighting with everyone and everything, brawling and drinking with Thor, training night and day till he's exhausted and falls into bed, only to get up and do the same thing the next day . . ." She sounded very worried. "He's even neglecting his magic in favor of carousing and fighting, which is very unlike him."

Avi wondered baldly if she'd left out "whoring" in that list of things he did when he was out with Thor, out of concern for her feelings, but she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

And, unlike Frigga, who had no idea as to the why Loki was so avidly pursuing very physical challenges, she knew exactly what - or rather, _who_ the problem was - her.

After parting with Frigga, Avi went to Loki's chambers and stood outside for long moments, gathering her nerve, then knocked tentatively on his door, her heart in her throat. Would he send her away?

He opened the door - naked to the waist - not looking at all happy to see her, although he did bow to her, stepping aside to open the door wider and show her in. "My princess," he greeted gravely.

For a moment after she stepped into them, she was lost in the opulence of his quarters, which were magnificent - resplendent with greens and golds, with strategic touches of black.

Not unlike him, although all he was wearing at the moment was a pair of black finely woven pants that clung in all the right - wrong - places.

That he still wanted her - at least in _that_ way - was in absolutely no doubt.

He stood in the middle of the room, staring at her like a starving wolf looks at a lame, plump rabbit, veiny, well-muscled arms tense but at his sides, fists clenching and unclenching, although he did not move - towards _or_ away from her.

Instead, she came to him, everything but her face concealed by a voluminous cape and hood of velvety amethyst colored material that was shot through with gold, looking like a vision from the fevered dreams he couldn't seem to banish from his mind, sent to torture him with thoughts of that which he could not have without ignoring her feelings and treating her in a manner he found abhorrent.

So he stood before her, tortured and tormented, his body pulsating feverishly with undeniable, unbearable need of her.

She smelled wonderful - her signature scent increasing his arousal a thousand fold - and looked as amazing as she always did, at least as much of her as he could see. It was taking every iota of his will to simply stand there when all he wanted to do in the world - in this moment and every moment thereafter - was to make her his, to possess her, to claim her in the most primitive of fashions a man could physically _own_ a woman he considered to be his.

Avi began to undo the fastenings of the cape - he could see those small hands working them from beneath - and, then, in one dramatic movement, it fell from her shoulders.

She was nude beneath it, presented now by a circle of folds of rich, glittering fabric that covered only her feet, her hair brushed till it shown, falling down her back to curl at the ends as if it was reaching to cup her behind the way his hands itched to.

Avi never expected - never wanted - to hear him whimper, but she did. He started towards her, hands out, a fevered, determined look on his face, and then she watched him - literally _saw_ his strength of will at work - as his fists dropped to his sides, his jaw pulsing granite as he looked her up and down in a manner she should have found completely insulting.

"Loki, - " she began, only to be interrupted.

"Leave me!" he should have yelled it, but it was all that more dramatic for its sand-papery softness, barely able to pull his eyes away from the gorgeous sight of her in all her glory. 

"No, Loki, please, I have come -"

She didn’t expect him to reach down, quick as a striking snake, to grab her upper arm in a powerful grip and drag her towards the door.

"You think to come here to tease me with that which you have decided I cannot have?" he sneered openly. This was the God that he was for her - thwarted and unhappy- but still not hurting her. "I have kept my distance from you for the past week because I know - I _know_ \- I can no longer be trusted to protect that which I have sworn to do so with my life." He slammed her up against the door rather than throwing her, naked, out into the hallway, his fist pounding the door perilously near her head, and she would have sworn she heard the wood crack. For all his fury, though, his hold on her eased to nothing as he released her and hung his head, murmuring brokenly, "I thought I could, but I find cannot protect you from _myself_ \- from my baser urges - and I would not dishonor you or myself -and take you against your will."

He rolled himself away from her then, chest heaving with ragged breath, fists still clenched, to lean his back against the door, eyes closed.

"Leave me while you still can, or I will not be held responsible for my actions," he commanded rawly.

Avi swallowed down the very real fear she had felt because, at the heart of him, even in this much pain, this was still Loki, who had removed himself from temptation rather than forcing himself on her, and she had no doubt whatsoever that he loved her endlessly.

As she did him.

With that thought in mind, she dropped to her knees before him, head bent in supplication, so close to him that the top of her head nearly rested on his knee.

"I've botched this badly and I am so sorry. I came here to . . ." she swallowed hard - her natural modesty fighting against her all the way - "to offer myself to you. To release you from your oath to me, that you have kept so valiantly and for which I thank you from the bottom of my heart. And to tell you . . . " another, harder swallow, "that I love you, and if you will still have me, I will spend the rest of my days trying to be worthy of your love, and trying to make you happy."

The quiet in the room was deafening, stifling, and Avi had no idea of what his reaction was to her little speech because her head was still bent, refusing to move until he did, whether it was to gather her into his arms and kiss the breath out of her, or throw her out into the hall.

But when it came, it wasn't really a movement.

Instead, it was a damp drop on the hair at the back of her head.

He was _crying_.

But when she would have risen to hold and comfort him as best she could, she found herself, instead, bowled over onto her back, and fully occupied in one swift stroke, feeling him bury himself within her with a possessive roar, fucking her furiously, almost violently at first, as if he couldn't believe she was finally his again in this most intimate, soul-bearing fashion he had craved for so long, but eventually it sank into his mind that he had her, as he sank into her more slowly, more deliberately, teasing and tasting her until she echoed his primal cry moments later when he brought her to the first of many peaks before succumbing to his own.

While she was still in his arms on the floor of his quarters, Loki apologized, "I am sorry for the rough accommodations," even though they're on a rug that felt as luxurious as any mattress she'd ever owned.

Avi confessed quietly, "I didn’t mean to tease you until you thought you couldn't see me any more because of the stupid limit I put on us. Thank you for your patience with me while I worked things out. I'm so sorry. I - " her own eyes filled with tears. "I hope I haven't done any permanent damage to our relationship -"

He kissed the top of her head tenderly. "You most certainly have not, my darling."

But, even in that lovely afterglow, as he held her tighter than he ever had, as if he never intended to let go, he didn't ask her to marry him again, as she had kind of expected he would.

 

 

Instead, a few days later, after he had insisted that she move into his rooms rather than staying in the guest room she usually occupied, and spending quite literally every second of every day with her, as if he thought she was going to disappear even though he was the one who had done that this time, he brought her back to the aviary, where they had first begun to bond.

And he did much the same thing as he had before, having her hold her arms out so that the birds could feed from her palms, then stepping back to watch her much more avidly than he did the birds.

This time, though, when he came to her, saying she looked a bit tired, the honey water disappeared from her left hand, leaving it empty, and the seed disappeared from her right hand, but there still seemed to be something weighty in it, and when she looked at what had been left there, she could see that there was a beautiful, big ring in her hand, a heart shaped amethyst surrounded by diamonds, which he plucked from her palm before she could stop him, gracefully taking a knee before her as her hand came up to cover her mouth in disbelief.

"My darling, my princess, my heart. You are my priceless treasure, my love, my everything. Please agree to become my wife and make me whole, make me a thousand times better than I could ever be without you."

This time, Avi fairly flung herself at him, and even though she knew she had no hope of actually doing so, he let her bowl him over so that he landed on his back with her on top of him, sprinkling kisses - and enthusiastic "Yeses!" all over his face.

 

Epilogue:

 

They were alone in his room for the first time after their wedding, which was much less extravagant than his mother wanted it to be, but Loki had, of course, backed Avi's preference for a much smaller, more intimate affair.

She was staring at the view from his balcony, looking very much like she had the first time she had fled from the table. 

But this time he didn't have to stop a respectful distance from her, instead wrapping his long arms around her from behind, pulling her back against him.

"What are you thinking, wife?" he asked, nibbling her ear loudly to make her laugh.

"I am thinking," she said as she turned in his loving arms, "that I am the luckiest woman in the nine realms to have you, Prince Loki, as my husband."

"What a coincidence, since I am the luckiest man in the nine realms to have you as my wife, Princess Avi." 

And this time, when he called her that, she actually was, not just a Princess, but a Princess Royal, having been created so by an edict direct from Odin himself.

It was one of the few things that his father had done of which Loki thoroughly approved.

"Were you happy with the wedding, my lovely?" he asked, beginning to hum softly and dance her slowly, romantically around their room.

"Oh yes! I thought it went really well, and even though it was smaller than Aunt - Frigga," she corrected herself, "wanted, I thought everyone enjoyed themselves, and so did I." 

Somehow, even after the time they'd spent together - intimate and otherwise - she still managed to feel a bit shy around him at times, and she felt it necessary to say, "I'm fine, by the way. I just left the reception to get some air - I didn't mean to interrupt you or make you feel you had to come after me -"

Loki found her shyness charming, especially considering the obscene things he did to her in the night - and the day. His kiss interrupted her pathetic little ramble. "You are never, ever an interruption, Avi. It is my duty - my deepest, most treasured honor - to keep a close eye on you - to see to your comfort and your safety . . . and your pleasure," he added, his voice lowering in a way that had her quivering in his embrace as he swept her up into his arms. "And it is the latter with which I intend to occupy myself most often, beginning right now . . . "

He bore her to their bed, setting her down on it as if she would shatter into a million pieces if he didn't treat her as gently as possibly, and proceeded to make love to his wife - his darling - his treasure - his Goddess, with exquisite tenderness and infinite love.


End file.
